Life in Camp, Part 1: Riding on a Rail
After Winslow Homer American
Publisher Louis Prang & Co. American
Not on view
In 1864 Homer designed two series of lithographed collectors’ cards titled Life in Camp for the Boston publisher Louis Prang & Co. Unlike his serious war-time images for Harper’s Weekly, the artist felt free to inject humor into these miniature comments on army life which include images of soldiers resting, eating and reacting to army life. Here a Union soldier is punished by being carried astride a narrow piece of wood. By 1864 the war was entering its final months and formerly sacrosanct subjects could be approached more lightly.