Thanksgiving Day, 1860: The Two Great Classes of Society - Winslow Homer
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Description
A social commentary wood engraving by Winslow Homer, originally published in Harper's Weekly in 1860, contrasting the lives of the wealthy and the poor.
Published in Harper's Weekly on 24 November 1860, this wood engraving by Winslow Homer offers a stark visual comparison of American social conditions on the eve of the Civil War. Homer, then a young illustrator working for the periodical, employs a split-composition technique to contrast the lives of the wealthy against those of the impoverished.
The left side of the print depicts the affluent, showing individuals with more food than they can consume. These scenes feature well-dressed figures in comfortable interiors, surrounded by the trappings of luxury. In contrast, the right side illustrates the struggles of the working class, characterised by those who possess a hunger they cannot satisfy. Here, the imagery shifts to cramped quarters, manual labour, and the physical toll of poverty.
Homer uses a series of vignettes to organise these narratives, a common format for nineteenth-century illustrated journalism. The engraving style is precise, relying on cross-hatching and varied line weights to define form and texture within the monochromatic medium. The work functions as a piece of social reportage, capturing the economic disparity present in mid-nineteenth-century urban life. By placing these two realities side by side, Homer invites the viewer to consider the social divide without providing an explicit moralising narrative. The print remains a valuable historical document, reflecting the observational skills that would later define Homer's career as a painter of American life. The composition is dense, filled with specific details of domestic interiors and street scenes that ground the work in its specific historical moment.
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Because every print is made to order, we don't offer change-of-mind returns, refunds or exchanges. If your order arrives faulty, damaged or incorrect, we'll replace it free of charge — just contact us within 48 hours of delivery. See our refunds page for full details.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
Care and materials
Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
To keep your artwork looking its best:
- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
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Materials & Sizing
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
Thanksgiving Day, 1860: The Two Great Classes of Society - 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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