The Artist in the Country

For the first 18 years of renowned painter Winslow Homer's career, his success was based largely on drawings reproduced as wood engravings in popular periodicals. Homer's drawing The Artist in the Country, which John Karst engraved, appeared on the front page of the 19 June 1869 issue of Appletons' Journal. It references the phenomenon of American artists leaving their studios to paint en plein air, or outdoors. Although many images depicted unspoiled wilderness, the tree stump at the left of this composition and the fashionably dressed woman suggest increased access to once-remote landscapes. The artist at his easel stands in for Homer, who created the drawing from sketches made in New Hampshire's White Mountain region during August 1868.