Driving Home the Corn/The Dance after the Husking, from Harper's Weekly, November 13, 1858
1858
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
1996.63.28
Tags
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer's *Driving Home the Corn/The Dance after the Husking*, published in *Harper's Weekly* on 13, 1858, captures the vibrant rhythms of mid-19th-century rural American. At just 22 years old, Homer was his skills as an illustrator for the popular magazine, using wood engravings to everyday scenes with remarkable realism. This graphic arts print reflects the pre-Civil War era's communities, where farming was both labor and social glue. The double-titled image juxtaposes the toil of harvesting—farmers driving home wagons laden with corn—with the exuberant "husking bee," a traditional ga...
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...