"The Gulf Stream" was based upon studies made during Homer's two
winter trips to the Bahamas in 1884–85 and 1898–99. First
exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in
Philadelphia in 1900, the picture was subsequently reworked and
"improved" by the artist. Early photographs show changes to the
sea and to the back of the ship, making the composition more
dramatic and vivid. The painting was shown in this state at the
Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1900–01, and then at M.
Knoedler and Co. in New York, where the artist placed on the
picture the record-asking price of $4,000. There were problems
selling the work because of either its high price or its
unpleasant subject matter. Homer may have reworked the painting
again in the face of this criticism in order to add the rigger
on the horizon that signals hope and rescue from the perils of
the sea.