The Veteran in a New Field

Realism Abroad

Winslow Homer

The Veteran in a New Field

1865

Oil on canvas, 61.3 × 96.8 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A man with his back to us scythes ripe wheat; his Union jacket and canteen lie in the corner.

  • Finished in the months after Lee's surrender and Lincoln's assassination.
  • The Met notes the single-bladed scythe also recalls the Grim Reaper.
  • A soldier's return to farm work, shown plainly, which the Met reads as both grief and hope.

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Public Domain (Met Open Access)

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