Corn Husking at Nantucket
Eastman Johnson American
This painting is likely the final study for a large composition that attracted critical acclaim at the 1876 annual exhibition of the National Academy of Design. With the rise of industrialization, Johnson, like many of his contemporaries, celebrated older forms of labor in specific regions of the country. His paintings of maple sugaring, cranberry picking, and corn husking all highlight life in New England. Produced during the Reconstruction era, this Nantucket subject emphasizing free, voluntary labor and communal efforts in rural Northern society would have been understood in sharp contrast to that of the sharecropping South.
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