Blossom Time in Virginia
c. 1878 Detroit Institute of Arts
About this artwork
This watercolor depicts an agricultural scene of a farmer plowing a field with an ox against a backdrop of a blossoming tree. It reflects the artist's engagement with post-Civil War rural American life.
Did you know?
While initial records suggested an earlier date of 1850, art historians have re-evaluated this work to be from the late 1870s, a period when Homer shifted focus toward watercolor as a primary medium. The scene captures the quiet dignity of agrarian labor in the American South, a subject Homer explored extensively during his travels in Virginia after the Civil War.
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Blossom Time in Virginia
Winslow Homer, c. 1878
