Art Analysis of Winslow Homer's Weaning the Calf

Picture by JR P

Obviously, Winslow Homer falls into the naturalist artists, for all of his paintings relate to nature and the natural world, but he also falls into the realism category. Homer dealt with the social issues of black emancipation in his painting Weaning the Calf, while maintaining a belief that the supreme elite value the effort of wartime heroes. Homer painted exactly what was happening in the world around him through his whole career, but because of his background of being an illustrator at a local magazine he was able to gain the ability to impact his audience in a positively bias way. He does this through how he painted the young slave under a shadow, so that it was not evident that he was actually an African American. This gave American’s hope for the future nation and that one day we unite again, becoming once again the almighty country. Homer used this skill of providing an optimistic perspective in all of his paintings, which helped his career, because he was producing these images during one of the nation’s worse times, the Civil War.

After growing up in rural Cambridge, Homer became a commercial printmaker in Boston and then moved to New York, where he studied oil painting in 1861. Directly after he finished this class, he was sent to Virginia to become an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly, where he used this new skill for the majority of his career. (Weinberg) During the time he was in Virginia, he was assigned to create images that depicted the Civil War and give hope to the people that the nation would join together again and become the great America once again. He painted Weaning the Calf during this time period, where he used oil on a canvas to show a young boy taking a calf away from it’s mother, while two other boys watch. Homer also used the skill of lighting in this painting where he portrayed the ideas of sunlight and shadows over the objects in the image. At first glace, this painting looks like a game that the boys made up and a bet to see who would have to deal with the calf, while the other two look on with laughter. Looking deeper into this image, the boy weaning the calf dressed in ragged and torn clothing, while the other two boys dressing highly in dress clothes, suspenders, and top hats. Also, the boy does the work with the calf under a huge shadow, so the audience does not see him as their first image. Homer had a reason for painting this image this way and it was because this painting was published in 1875, right after the Civil War ended and the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced, therefore freeing all slaves in the nation. Homer was able to show the audience that the lives of African Americans, after they were legally free from their owners, had changed through this painting. Although, regardless of their legal freedom, they were still not equal to Caucasians in this time.

For almost 20 years, Homer produced illustrations for Harper’s Weekly, which was A Journal of Civilization that published American politics, foreign and domestic, from a New York base station on Alexander Street. Harper’s Weekly distributed magazines over 100,000 to international countries as

Picture by Boston Public Library

well as circulated within America. Research says that it had a consistent readership of at least half a million people. Throughout the 55 years that it was published, there was 75,000 illustrations that were contributed mostly from Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, and Thomas Nast. The images that Harper’s published defined that period of time during America and it also shaped the opinion of the public. This source of production was able to provide a huge impact in five different presidential elections, which was mostly caused by it’s international coverage. (Harper's) Since there was so many people reading the output from this magazine, the information that they published was very important because it shaped the way that American’s thought and acted. Homer’s optimistic style came from this because he was having his paintings published in a widely-known magazine and Homer knew that people need to be reassured about the the nation’s unity. Homer also painted this way because of his belief that the elite value heroic war efforts. (Colbert) The combination of these two values and characteristics of Homer lead to his painting of Weaning the Calf. Homer shows these two value through the painting’s literal and figurative meaning. The black slave is pictured under the shade, which casts a big shadow on the boy while he works to pull the stubborn calf away from it’s mother. Literally, this image pictures a “perfect life” where children played with farm animals and interacted with slaves, gradually accepting them as people instead of slaves. This image allowed American’s to “escape into a fantasy of an ever-happy childhood,” where children were able to except the newly-freed slaves and treat them as normal people, unlike their parents. (Mitchell) But figuratively, the painting represents the weaning of African-Americans from slavery which directly relates the weaning of the calf in the painting from it’s mother. (Magister) Although some sources state that Homer did not intend to represent this figurative meaning, it became a famous painting for how the newly-freed slaves were feeling at this time.

This painting was published during the Reconstruction period of America, where the state of North Carolina and other southern states were in a social revolution. Since slavery was destructed, people who were wealthy either lost their lands because the government liberated their lands because they were not following the new legislation or they abandoned their lands. On the other end, slaves were now looking for a place to start a job and make money and they legally had their freedom, but that was about it. Shortly after the proclamation, newly-freed slaves and very poor whites decided to start a new industry where they would share the land they were cropping, which was called sharecropping. Eventually whites agreed to allow blacks their rights as individuals, but they would not agree to their legal and social equality. (Harper's) The idea that whites accepted blacks as individuals, but not people of equal value as themselves explains the image Weaning the Calf. Homer was able to add the idea that these individuals were physically free from slavery and could interact with whites, but as the painting shows the blacks do not have the same social level as the white boys. This also explains the idea that newly-freed slaves had to find jobs and earn money, which for some blacks meant working for their same owners but this time for a wage.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in 1876, a year after Homer published the painting of

Picture by William Creswell

Weaning the Calf. Mark Twain wrote this book about a young boy who got away from the real world of war times and create his own little pretend life. Tom Sawyer creates relationships with several, happy and youthful friends in a time of panic and horrid. This book relates to Homer’s Weaning the Calf because they both relate to how children do not realize the bigger picture of the real world. (Work) They remain happy and young while the world around them struggles in a war. Weaning the Calf also shows to the audience how big of a change these boys go through and they aren’t even aware of it. This representation explains the boy’s transformation from adolescence to adults right before their eyes. This idea appears again through the calf being pulled away from it’s mother, so that it can learn how to live on it’s own without support. (Wood) At this age, these boys become young adults and will have to make their own opinions, decisions and have their own responsibilities. For example, these boys become old enough that they have to either take care of the farm or find a job to financially support themselves. The representation of the transformation from adolescence to adulthood in this painting added a huge contribution to this time period. Parents change their ways of teaching their children to include not having slaves. These kids learn how to interact with African Americans in a completely new way that they were raised to.

Picture by Irina

Weaning the Calf has also been related to another one of Homer’s paintings called Snap the Whip. Being one of Homer’s best-known pictures, scholars suggest that these two paintings serve as companions for one another. (Work) Snap the Whip was painted in 1872 and shows young school boys playing a game outside their schoolhouse. The boys in this image look a lot like the boys in Weaning the Calf that watch the black boy wean the calf. The boys in both pictures portray themselves as young and innocent, while also representing freedom through their bare feet and the boys turning from boys into men through the hats and suspenders. In Snap the Whip, Homer painted the boys playing a game where they all hold hands and pull, sort of like tug-a-war, on each other. This game also represents what the nation was going through during the war and how unity still exists. (Smith) This painting directly relates to Weaning the Calf because they both represent the post-Civil War problems and how the nation reminisces on the happiness that was before the war and also how the nation changes into a completely different country.

When first looking at a painting, you only see the literal meaning of a painting and not the figurative meaning, history, or background of the artist. All of these characteristics determine the true analysis of the painting. Homer was able to combine nature and “real” images in his paintings, while still giving an optimistic perspective to the audience and value heroic war efforts. Homer exhibited this skill in Weaning the Calf by giving the people of America hope that the nation will reunite and regardless of the huge differences from the Civil War.

Sources

Colbert, Charles. "Winslow Homer, Reluctant Modern." JSTOR. The University of Chicago Press, 2003. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/382161>.

"Harper's Weekly: 1857-1912." Alexander Street. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://alexanderstreet.com/products/harpers-weekly-1857-1912>.

Magister, Senex. "Winslow Homer." Winslow Homer. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://hoocher.com/Winslow_Homer/Winslow_Homer.htm>.

Mitchell, Paul. "Winslow Homer (1836-1910): Poet of the Sea." World Socialist Web Site. 3 Apr. 2006. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/04/homr-a03.html>.

Smith, Jeanette. "A Garden in Nassau: Winslow Homer." JAMA Network. 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1733693>.

"War's End and Reconstruction." The North Carolina Civil War Experience. North Carolina Historic Sites. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://civilwarexperience.ncdcr.gov/narrative/narrative-4.htm>.

Weinberg, H. Barbara. “Winslow Homer (1836-1910)”. In Helibrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-.http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/homr/hd_homr.htm (October 2004)

Wood, Peter. "Peter H. Wood on Revisiting Winslow Homer." 'Harvard University Press Blog' 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2010/11/peter-h-wood-revisiting-winslow-homer.html>.

"Work of Art: Weaning the Calf." ArtNC. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://artnc.org/works-of-art/weaning-calf>.