Artwork
Home, Sweet Home
Home, Sweet Home is an oil painting by the American Folk Art artist Winslow Homer. It dates from 1863 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower right: W Homer
About this work
Technique & Style
The composition’s handling emphasizes a quiet, domestic mood through softened contours and a muted palette dominated by earth tones and subdued greens.
Home, Sweet Home is an oil painting on canvas executed by Winslow Homer in 1863. The work measures 54.6 cm in height by 41.9 cm in width.
The composition’s handling emphasizes a quiet, domestic mood through softened contours and a muted palette dominated by earth tones and subdued greens. Homer’s brushwork is restrained yet descriptive, employing delicate transitions to render the interior space and the seated woman’s attire, while the still life on the table is treated with a slightly more pronounced, almost linear precision. The overall tonality and careful balance of light and shadow align with mid-nineteenth-century American genre painting conventions, conveying intimacy and nostalgia rather than dramatic incident.
History & Provenance
Winslow Homer painted Home, Sweet Home in 1863. The work was exhibited at the National Academy of Design that same year, where it was initially marked for sale but reportedly sold by the second day of the exhibition, possibly to Samuel Putnam Avery of New York. Avery subsequently consigned the painting to a sale at Leeds Art Galleries in February 1867, where it was purchased by Mrs. Alexander H. Shephard.
The canvas later passed through Howard Young Galleries and M. Knoedler & Co., entering the collection of George M.L. LaBranche by approximately 1920. Following LaBranche's ownership, the work returned to Knoedler in 1954 before being acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Shaye of Detroit by 1957. After an unsuccessful auction attempt in 1984 and a private sale in 1985, the painting appeared at Christie's in 1997, where it was purchased by Hirschl & Adler Galleries specifically for the National Gallery of Art.
The painting Home, Sweet Home is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It was acquired by the museum through Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, following its purchase at a Christie's auction in New York on June 5, 1997. Prior to entering the public trust, the work passed through several private collections and dealers, including M. Knoedler & Co. and the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Shaye. The painting was first marked for sale at the 1863 National Academy of Design exhibition, where it was reportedly sold by the second day, possibly to Samuel Putnam Avery. It later appeared in the Avery sale at Leeds Art Galleries in February 1867.
Overview
Home, Sweet Sweet is an oil on canvas painted by Winslow Homer around 1863. The work depicts a modest military encampment, focusing on two Union soldiers in dark blue uniforms positioned in the foreground. The composition is anchored by a simple tent and a sky brushed with light clouds, conveying a moment of quiet routine amid the larger camp.
Subject & Meaning
The painting presents two soldiers at rest: one leans against his rifle, gazing outward, while the other sits on a rock, cradling his hat. Their relaxed posture and the unadorned surroundings suggest a pause in the daily hardships of war, emphasizing the ordinary, human side of military life rather than heroic action.
Context
Created during the American Civil War, the work reflects Homer’s exposure to military environments, having served as an artist for the Union army. The painting’s focus on a quiet camp scene aligns with contemporary realist tendencies to document the lived experience of ordinary people in wartime.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects.
