Gathering Berries (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XVIII)

Gathering Berries (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XVIII) is a wood engraving created by Winslow Homer in 1874. This print exemplifies Homer’s significant body of work produced for illustrated periodicals during the mid-to-late 19th century. As a key contribution to Harper’s Weekly, the piece provided mass-market access to high-quality visual art, capturing scenes of contemporary American daily life. This medium, highly dependent on the skill of the engraver translating the artist’s drawing, allowed for wide circulation and established Homer as a prominent chronicler of the post-Civil War era.

The composition focuses on a group of figures engaged in rural labor. Several girls and women are shown working, specifically harvesting fruit or berries and collecting them into baskets. Homer often depicted women outdoors, focusing on their activities and dress in natural settings. The figures are positioned near the water, and in the background, suggesting a coastal or waterfront locale, boats are faintly visible on the distant horizon, linking the work of gathering to the wider maritime environment.

Homer’s technique, even within the restrictive conventions of the wood engraving print, achieves a sense of light and atmosphere characteristic of his later oils. This particular print of Gathering Berries is held in the extensive collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Homer’s dedication to capturing naturalistic moments of rural working life is evident in the casual postures and interactions of the figures. Due to its age and original publication, this significant 19th-century work is frequently found in the public domain, making high-resolution images accessible to researchers and the public worldwide.