Making Hay, from Harper's Weekly, July 6, 1872
1872
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
1996.63.79
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Making Hay**, a wood engraving by Winslow Homer published in *Harper's Weekly* on July 6, 1872, captures the timeless rhythm of rural American life in the post-Civil War era Homer, a master of Realism, often depicted everyday laborers with unflinching honesty, drawing from his own observations of the countryside. This print illustrates a group of farmers energetically harvesting hay, their scythes slicing through the fields under a vast summer sky—a vivid snapshot of agricultural toil that resonated with urban readers hungry for glimpses of pastoral America. As a graphic arts print from *Ha...
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...