Our Next President, from Harper's Weekly, October 31, 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
1996.63.21
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Our Next President**, a lively wood engraving by Winslow Homer published in *Harper's Weekly* on October 31, 1868, captures the electric anticipation of the upcoming U.S. presidential election Just days before voters chose between Republican Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant and Democrat Horatio Seymour, this illustration exuberantly toasts Grant as the nation's next leader. Homer, a master realist and longtime *Harper's* illustrator, depicts a boisterous group of figures raising glasses to a bust of Grant amid a scene of eating, drinking, and patriotic revelry—perfectly embodying post-Civil W...
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...