Woman in a Sunbonnet
Classification
figures
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Charles Savage Homer, Jr.
Accession Number
1912-12-68
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
**Woman in a Sunbonnet** (1874) by Winslow Homer captures the quiet dignity of everyday American life during the post-Civil War era. Homer, a pioneering American Realist (1836–1910), often depicted rural scenes and ordinary figures with unflinching honesty, drawing from his keen observation of nature and people. This work, classified as a figure study, likely portrays a woman in her traditional sunbonnet—a practical garment shielding against harsh sun and wind—evoking the resilient spirit of 19th-century rural women. Created in 1874, amid America's Gilded Age transition from agrarian roots to...