Kerr Eby, born Tokyo, Japan 1889-died - Cos Cob Harbor - 1916 - T-Shirt

Cos Cob Harbor is a 1916 etching by American printmaker Kerr Eby, showing a quiet waterfront of weathered wooden buildings, moored rowboats and a sailing vessel rigged for the harbour.

Visual Elements & Composition

The scene is built in sepia brown and warm cream, with grey and dark umber carrying the shadows and pale sky opening the top of the plate. A wooden waterfront house with a porch and exterior staircase anchors one side, while a sloped-roof boat shed and a small outbuilding stand close beside it. Out on the water, a sailing vessel with a raked mast and rigging holds the centre, and a figure stands on its deck. Laundry hangs from the shed, a small domestic detail in an otherwise working landscape. The horizontal plate sits within a cream margin, and the fine line work gives the whole image its texture and light.

Meaning & Symbolism

The harbour stands for the everyday rhythm of coastal life in early twentieth-century Connecticut: boats coming and going, buildings built for work, and households living at the water's edge. Eby made the print before his later wartime imagery of the First World War, and it shows his foundational interest in atmospheric landscape and his command of light in etching. The image records a shoreline before rapid industrialisation reshaped places like this one.

Crafted for the Harbour Lover

Etchings are made to be seen up close, and a tee brings this one to eye level as you move through your day. The composition's boats, shed and water sit across the chest, so the harbour reads as a complete scene rather than a fragment. Wear it as a reminder of a calm working waterfront from 1916.