Blue Beard Tableau, from Harper's Bazar, September 5, 1868
1868
Medium
Graphic Arts-Print
Classification
Graphic Arts-Print
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Ray Austrian Collection, gift of Beatrice L. Austrian, Caryl A. Austrian and James A. Austrian
Accession Number
1996.63.160
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Blue Beard Tableau, from Harper Bazar, September , 1868** Winslow Homer, a pioneering American realist artist, created this wood engraving print for the pages of *Harper's Bazar* in 1868, during the vibrant post-Civil War era when illustrated magazines brought theater, fashion, and folklore to middle-class homes. Featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection, it captures a dramatic "tableau vivant"—a popular 19th-century entertainment where performers froze in posed scenes mimicking famous stories. Here, Homer illustrates a lively group of figures enacting the chilling fairy ...
About the Artist
Winslow Homer · 1836–1910
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was one of America's greatest painters and a preeminent figure in 19th-century American art. Largely self-taught, Homer began his career as a commercial illustrator and Civil War correspondent for Harper's Weekly before becoming renowned for his powerful marine subjects and landscape paintings. His mastery of both oil and watercolor, combined with his uncompromising reali...