Autumn

Autumn belongs to Homer's seasonal landscape work, in which he depicted the New England year across its full range from the first green of spring to the bare forms of winter. Autumn as a subject carried particular resonance in American painting from the Hudson River School onward — the New England fall color was considered one of the natural wonders available to American painters and unavailable in Europe. Homer's autumn subjects in oil differ from his watercolor autumn studies: the oil paintings tend to be more compositionally deliberate, while the watercolors capture the direct impression of specific autumnal light with greater spontaneity.

The autumn palette is Homer's warmest — oranges, reds, yellows — and he uses it without the restraint of his marine subjects. His handling of deciduous foliage in autumn is characteristically direct: color masses rather than leaf-by-leaf rendering, with the overall chromatic effect valued above botanical accuracy.