Post-Civil War Life and Industrialization

    In the years following the war that took more lives than any other American conflict, artists reflected both a new order where all men were considered equal, as well as a resistance to that new order. Today, our understanding of the Civil War is driven by post-war artists, which helped shape people’s understanding of the conflict that overtook the nation, and art that memorializes the people, events, and places. The depictions of this new life in the climax of industrialization allow us to ask questions. What did this mean for Americans? Whose story is being told? What are the ongoing impacts of resistance to emancipation and equality? Some artists aimed to focus on the common soldier in order to humanize the conflict and make the effects of the war more tangible. Others aimed to shed light on what life is like after the war, with the emergence of industrialization and equality. With a culmination of these two themes in mind, post-civil war life and industrialization, can artists fully humanize life in this time period by depicting the struggles and triumphs, or is their art simply memorializations of the war and the industrial revolution? You be the judge. 

Winslow Homer, Snap the Whip, 1872

oil on canvas, 12 x 20 in., on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 899 - ascension: 50.41

An optimistic symbol of the nation’s future after the conclusion of the Civil War, Winslow Homer depicts barefoot boys celebrating the joy of childhood by playing the game, snap the whip. At the time, the coordination and teamwork that it took to play the game was seen as necessary qualities for bringing the country together. However, Homer does not neglect to represent the challenges ahead by painting a child, flung off the chain. The landscape is also nostalgic in the sense that Homer immortalizes the little red schoolhouse, representing the shift from rural to urban life. 

Winslow Homer, The Veteran in a New Field, 1865

oil on canvas, 24 ⅛ x 38 ⅛ in., on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 899 - ascension: 67.187.131

At the conclusion of the war, where the Confederates surrendered and the assassination of Lincoln took place, the painting symbolizes the tension between grief and hope that many Americans felt. The iconography of a union jacket in the lower right corner allows the viewer to make the connection that this figure is a veteran, and the “new field” suggested in the title reminds the viewer of the old one, the battlefield. The juxtaposition of the bountiful harvest with the scythe evokes the notion that while renewal and recovery are occurring, how long will it last? 

Theodor Kaufmann, On to Liberty, 1867

oil on canvas, 36 x 56 in., not on view at The Met - ascension: 1982.443.3 

After the war ended, it was rumored that Confederate troops stole slave men and fled to Brazil, where slavery was still legal. A Union soldier in the war, Theodor Kaufmann may have seen with his own eyes, Confederate troops fleeing with enslaved men, leaving behind the women and children depicted in this painting. His portrayal of the group of retreating figures represents the lack of a clear path to liberty for Black Americans after the war. Are they truly free? 

Enoch Wood Perry, Talking It Over, 1872

oil on canvas, 22 ¼ x 29 ¼ in., on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 763 - ascension:1980.361

Celebrating a vanishing way of life, the Yankee farmers depicted in the painting have a striking resemblance to that of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, which summons further a simple nostalgic fantasy. Enoch Wood Perry’s choice, to seat the iconic figures of American ideal in a barn setting, honors the rural values in the face of heightened immigration and never before seen industrial and economic growth that America faced at the time. 

Enoch Wood Perry, The True American, 1874

oil on canvas, 11 ⅞ x 16 ⅛ in., on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 758 - ascension: 55.177

Another Perry painting, The True American, is a humorous depiction that mocks the impossibility of national unity after the Civil War. Conjuring happy memories for urban viewers in the setting of this painting, Perry implies that the figures are non-thinking and mindless in the representation of the subjects with their heads concealed. Meaning, the artist is making a comment on the ignorance of the voting population, which was mostly white at this time. 

Winslow Homer, Dressing for the Carnival, 1877

oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in., on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 899 - ascension: 22.220

Another Homer painting to round out this exhibition. In this, he evokes the dislocation and lasting effects of African American culture, which had been a legacy of slavery. Dressing for the Carnival depicts a festival with blended African and European traditions that incorporated themes of independence. This theme had strong relevance at the time due to the emancipation of Black Americans in the South receiving a brief experience of civil rights when the federal troops were withdrawn.