Three Chinese Men Playing Dominoes in a Baxter Street Club-House, New York City
Medium
figures
Classification
figures
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Charles Savage Homer, Jr.
Accession Number
1912-12-49
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer, one of America’s most celebrated 19th-century artists, created this scene around 1874 during a period when he frequently turned his attention to everyday urban life. Best known for his Civil War illustrations and later marine paintings, Homer here captures three Chinese men absorbed in a game of dominoes inside a modest club-house on Baxter Street in lower Manhattan. The work reflects the growing presence of Chinese immigrants in New York’s Five Points neighborhood at a time of expanding immigration and shifting social dynamics. Though listed simply as “figures,” the compositio...