Which Winslow Homer painting at the Met shows a man adrift in a broken boat?

The Winslow Homer painting at the Met showing a man adrift in a broken boat is The Gulf Stream.

Homer painted the oil on canvas in 1899 and reworked it by 1906. The scene shows a Black man lying aboard a damaged, mastless boat in rough Caribbean waters. Sharks circle the vessel, while a waterspout rises in the distance, turning a maritime mishap into a tense confrontation between human survival and overwhelming natural forces.

The title refers to the powerful Atlantic current that carries warm water from the Caribbean northward along the American coast and onward toward Europe. The painting’s imagery also connects the Caribbean sea, sugar production, imperial commerce, and the history of transatlantic slavery, giving the work meanings beyond a simple shipwreck narrative.

The answer is sometimes confused with Homer’s other seascape, The Fog Warning, which shows a fisherman racing back toward a distant vessel. Snap the Whip and Breezing Up depict entirely different subjects.