May-Day in the Country, from Harper's Weekly, April 30, 1859
1859
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
1996.63.33
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the lively rural festivities of Winslow Homer's *May-Day in the Country*, a wood engraving published in *Harper's Weekly* on April 30, 1859. This graphic arts print captures a joyful group of figures celebrating the traditional spring holiday amid the American countryside, complete with equestrian elements that evoke the era's blend of leisure and rural tradition. At just 23 years old, Homer was honing skills as an illustrator for the popular magazine, translating bustling scenes into intricate black-and-white engravings that brought everyday American life to vivid immediacy. Homer'...
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...