← Winslow Homer

The Robin's Note (from "Every Saturday," Vol. I, New Series)

Original title: The Robin's Note (from "Every Saturday," Vol. I, New Series)

Artist

Winslow Homer

Date

August 20, 1870

Medium

Wood engraving

Dimensions

image: 9 x 8 7/8 in. (22.9 x 22.5 cm) sheet: 14 1/2 x 10 3/16 in. (36.8 x 25.8 cm) block: 9 3/4 x 9 1/8 in. (24.8 x 23.2 cm)

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1930

kurzbeschreibung

Winslow Homer's wood engraving of August 20, 1870 presents a woman in a long dress settled comfortably in an ornamented hammock. This idyllic leisure picture served as the cover of the magazine Every Saturday.

Description

Seated at the middle of the print on a hammock trimmed with beadwork, a woman in a long, full-skirted dress leans back at ease and looks toward the right edge. A column rises into the frame from the left, holding one end of the hammock. Trees and a patch of sky fill the rear of the image, while light entering from the left makes woman and hammock stand out.

Context

On August 20, 1870 the sheet appeared as the title picture of Every Saturday. Homer was then working as a freelance illustrator, producing wood engravings for various magazines. The subject reflects the leisure culture of the middle class on the American East Coast after the Civil War.

Impact

A summery calm governs the picture, with the relaxed posture of the woman outdoors at its heart. The richly detailed foreground separates itself from the softer rear, drawing the eye to the main subject.

Technique

For this engraving the image was cut into a wood block and printed from it. Fine lines and shading build up textures and depth of a kind characteristic of nineteenth-century printmaking.

AI-generated description text

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)