DAY 215

A PICTURE’S WORTH 1000 200 WORDS

Snap the Whip

WINSLOW HOMER, 1872

Boston-born artist Winslow Homer began his career first as an apprentice to a lithographer; then he became an illustrator. Homer is best known, however, for his evocative oil paintings of seascapes and of American life in the latter half of the 19^th century.

In Snap the Whip we find young schoolboys playing a vigorous game that was a test of their strength and tenacity. The object of the game was for the participants to remain standing and connected, hand in hand, as the human “whip” snapped. The painting was first exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia where it was much acclaimed, although Homer’s potentially “sentimental” subjects were frowned upon by a few elite critics.

This childhood scene may evoke a sense of wistfulness in modern viewers; its imagery recalls a simpler, more rural way of life that seems lost to our hi-tech world. Viewing audiences in the 19^th century would likely have experienced similar nostalgia. At the time, in the wake of the Civil War and as urbanization increased, many of the little red schoolhouses, such as the one depicted here, were beginning to disappear across America. Today Homer’s continuing ability to inspire a longing for days-gone-by through his paintings is one of many reasons that he remains a beloved American artist. —DDG