Romance to Rifles

Last Sunday's Fake or Fortune on BBC1 certainly stirred up some interest in that great American artist Winslow Homer. By a strange coincidence, three days ago The Dayton Art Institute in Ohio, USA, opened From Romance to Rifles: Winslow Homer's Illustrations of 19th-Century America, which continues until 2 October (title link). This exhibition concentrates on Homer's early career as a freelance illustrator, selling wood engravings mainly to Harper's Weekly. He is considered one of America's finest wood engravers. The picture shown here is The Army of the Potomac, A Sharpshooter on Picket Duty (1862). CLICK for a much larger graphic of another of his engravings.