Holiday in Camp--Soldiers Playing "Football", from Harper's Weekly, July 15, 1865
1865
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
1996.63.59
Tags
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer, a pioneering American realist artist, captured a rare moment of levity inHoliday in Camp—Soldiers Playing "Football"* , published in *Harper's* on July 15, 1865. As a special artist-correspondent for the popular illustrated newspaper during the Civil War, Homer sketched scenes from the front lines, translating them into wood engravings that brought the realities of soldier life to a national audience. This print, the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection, dates to the war's immediate aftermath, just months after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. The image depicts Un...
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...