There is a painting in this magnificent survey of the American realist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) that is as frightening as anything you will see in a gallery. It shows a fisherman surging up a turbulent wave in his fragile boat, while an obliterating fog starts to roll in on the horizon.
The boat tips, the catch slithers, the man rows hard against the oncoming menace, head backlit against the fading light. Will he make it back to the distant mother ship before it disappears? There is no way of knowing. The painting takes you right out there, all at sea with the lone figure in his peril. It does not bring you comfortably back.
