Coming through the Rye

In 1867, Homer spent about ten months in France. Based in Paris, he visited the French countryside and painted a series of oils focusing on the theme of rural life and labor, stimulated by his interest in French Barbizon painters, then popular in the United States. In Homer’s picturesque painting, the young woman walks through a dense field of rye under bright skies. Her golden yellow dress echoes the tones of the tall grass in the sunlight. She clutches her hands, carrying a few red blossoms, as her skirt seems to swirl behind her. Despite the idyllic innocence of Homer’s painting, contemporary viewers might have recognized the title and subject as a reference to a poem by the Scotsman Robert Burns (1759-1796), Comin Thro’ The Rye (1784), a bawdy recounting of a young woman’s encounter with a lover in a field that was set to music, becoming a popular ballad. The painting is one of many works by Homer from this period titled after poems and songs that may have suggested deeper narratives for audiences when shown in New York in 1873.