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Snap the Whip

Winslow Homer American
1872
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 763
Snap the Whip celebrates the pleasures of childhood in a rough-and-tumble game. Homer’s barefoot boys are determined and exuberant—an optimistic symbol of the nation’s future after the destruction of the Civil War, and a popular centennial theme. The teamwork and coordination involved in the game were seen as essential qualities for reuniting the country, though Homer suggested the challenges ahead through a break in the human chain. The scene is infused with nostalgia, immortalizing the little red schoolhouse just as the nation was shifting away from its agrarian past toward an increasingly urbanized future.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Snap the Whip
  • Artist: Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
  • Date: 1872
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 12 x 20 in. (30.5 x 50.8 cm)
    Framed: 24 x 32 x 5 in. (61 x 81.3 x 12.7 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Christian A. Zabriskie, 1950
  • Object Number: 50.41
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover), Winslow Homer American, Lithograph
Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover)
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Sunday Morning in Virginia – From the Painting by Winslow Homer in the National Academy of Design (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XXIV), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
Sunday Morning in Virginia – From the Painting by Winslow Homer in the National Academy of Design (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XXIV)
Winslow Homer
May 22, 1880
A Quiet Day in the Country (from "Appleton's Journal," Vol. III), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
A Quiet Day in the Country (from "Appleton's Journal," Vol. III)
Winslow Homer
D. Appleton & Co.
June 6, 1870
George Blake's Letter (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. IX), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
George Blake's Letter (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. IX)
Winslow Homer
January 1870
"I Cannot! It Would Be a Sin! A Fearful Sin!" (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. VI), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
"I Cannot! It Would Be a Sin! A Fearful Sin!" (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. VI)
Winslow Homer
September 1868

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