Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History


    • Prisoners from the Front, 1866
    Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)
    Oil on canvas; 24 x 38 in. (61 x 96.5 cm)
    Gift of Mrs. Frank B. Porter, 1922 (22.207)

    The material that Homer collected as an artist-correspondent during the Civil War provided the subjects for his first oil paintings. In 1866, one year after the war ended and four years after he reputedly began to paint in oil, Homer completed this picture, a work that established his reputation. It represents an actual scene from the war in which a Union officer, Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow (1834–1896), captured several Confederate officers on June 21, 1864. The background depicts the battlefield at Petersburg, Virginia. Infrared photography and numerous studies indicate that the painting underwent many changes in the course of completion.

    This work of art also appears on Connections: Lincoln and the Civil War

    Related


    This work has been published in the Museum's Bulletin or Journal. These articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship.
  • Cikovsky, Nicolai. "Winslow Homer's Prisoners from the Front." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 12 (1977).
    JSTOR | PDF
  • Spassky, Natalie. "Winslow Homer: At The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 39, no. 4 (Spring, 1982).
    JSTOR | PDF
  • Gardner, Albert Ten Eyck. "Metropolitan Homers [Winslow Homer]." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New ser., v. 17, no. 5 (January, 1959)
    JSTOR | PDF
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    • Prisoners from the Front, 1866
    Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)
    Oil on canvas; 24 x 38 in. (61 x 96.5 cm)
    Gift of Mrs. Frank B. Porter, 1922 (22.207)

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