The Army of the Potomac - A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty
ArtistAfter
Winslow Homer
(American, 1836-1910)
Publisher
Harper's Weekly
(American, 1825-1916)
CultureAmerican
DateNovember 15, 1862
MediumWood engraving
DimensionsOverall: 16 1/4 x 11 1/4 in. (41.3 x 28.6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number98.15.3
Not on view
DescriptionThis wood engraving depicts a man in a tree, pointing a long rifle toward a target not seen.Label TextAfter Winslow Homer American, 1836−1910 The Army of the Potomac—A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty, 1862 Printed in Harper’s Weekly, vol. 6, no. 307 (November 15, 1862) Wood engraving (print) In Lincoln’s day, illustrated newspapers like Harper’s Weekly provided millions of Americans with both information and images. All pictures in these publications were inexpensive wood engravings, created quickly by workshops of skilled printmakers. Before 1860, most illustrators based their images on paintings and drawings, as with this engraving after a work by Winslow Homer of a sniper taking aim. Homer made his first sketches of riflemen while embedded with the Army of the Potomac during the siege of Yorktown, Va., in the spring of 1862. Museum purchase 98.15.3 Exhibition History"Sacred Sites, Then and Now: The American Civil War," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, May 1 - Sept. 6, 1998. "Shooting Lincoln: Photography and the 16th President," Chrysler Museum of Art, February 10 - July 5, 2015.Published ReferencesHarper's Weekly, November 15, 1862.
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
August 1864
