Our Watering-Places - The Empty Sleeve at Newport - Winslow Homer
Archival giclée
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Description
A poignant 1865 wood engraving by Winslow Homer depicting a wounded Civil War veteran and a woman in a carriage at the Newport seaside.
Published in Harper's Weekly on 26 August 1865, this wood engraving by Winslow Homer captures a quiet moment of post-Civil War American life. The scene depicts a man and a woman seated in a wicker carriage, positioned against the backdrop of the Newport coastline. The man, wearing a military cap and a jacket with an empty sleeve, is a clear reference to the many soldiers who returned home with permanent injuries following the conclusion of the American Civil War earlier that year.
Homer was employed as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly during the war, and his work often documented the social shifts occurring within the country. In this composition, the contrast between the leisure activity of a seaside carriage ride and the physical reality of the veteran creates a narrative of recovery and societal adjustment. The woman holds the reins, suggesting a shift in domestic roles or perhaps a supportive presence during the man's convalescence. The technical execution of the wood engraving demonstrates Homer's ability to render texture, from the woven wicker of the carriage to the soft folds of the woman's dress and the distant, hazy horizon of the sea.
The print reflects the broader interest in American watering places, which were popular destinations for the affluent during the mid-nineteenth century. By placing a wounded veteran in this setting, Homer invites the viewer to consider the presence of the war within the civilian sphere. The composition is balanced, with the carriage forming a protective curve around the figures, while the open sea provides a sense of scale and atmosphere. This work remains a significant example of Homer's early career, showing his transition from journalistic illustration to the more thematic explorations of American life that would define his later career in oil and watercolour.
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Specific Features
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- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
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Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Our Watering-Places - The Empty Sleeve at Newport - Winslow Homer
Artist Biography
Winslow Homer
He moved from illustration to painting without formal training, learning oil technique largely by observation. His early paintings are genre scenes of rural American life: children playing, women on croquet lawns, the kind of post-war pastoral that the public wanted. They sold well. He was dissatisfied with them.
In 1881 he went to Cullercoats, a fishing village in northeast England, and spent two years painting the women who waited on the shore for the fishing boats to return. The Cullercoats paintings are darker, more dramatic, and more serious than anything he had made before. The sea became his subject.
He moved to Prouts Neck, Maine, in 1883 and lived there, mostly alone, for the rest of his life. The Maine paintings, The Gulf Stream, Northeaster, Right and Left, are about the confrontation between human beings and the ocean. The figures are small. The water is enormous. The light is cold. He painted the sea the way Constable painted clouds: from direct observation, over years, until he understood its behaviour.
His watercolours, made on fishing trips to the Adirondacks, Florida, and the Bahamas, are freer and more experimental than the oils. Tropical sunlight and clear water brought out colours he did not use in Maine. He died in 1910, at seventy-four.
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