The Gulf Stream–an oil painting by Homer Winslow–depicts a solitary man in a small fishing boat, surrounded by sharks and struggling against the waves of the sea. But at a deeper level, what is it ‘really’ about? According to one art historian (Albert Ten Eyck Gardner), this painting portrays “a particularly enigmatic and tantalizing episode, a marine puzzle that floats forever in a region of unsolved mysteries.” In any case, we wonder if Ernest Hemingway was aware of this painting when he wrote his masterpiece “The Old Man and the Sea”?