Hon. James A. Pearce, U. S. Senator from Maryland

Hon. James A. Pearce, U. S. Senator from Maryland, is a significant portrait by the American artist Winslow Homer, created in 1859. This detailed depiction captures a prominent political figure of the era, James Alfred Pearce (1805-1862), who represented Maryland in the Senate from 1843 until his death. Homer created this image during a transitional period when magazine illustration and prints were the primary methods for disseminating the likenesses of political and cultural figures across the expanding United States. This wood engraving serves as both formal portraiture and a piece of mass media designed for circulation.

Classified strictly as a print, the medium employed is the technically demanding wood engraving process. Although Homer (1836-1910) is widely celebrated today for his monumental oil paintings and evocative watercolors, his early career centered almost entirely on illustration, working notably for periodicals like Harper’s Weekly. This early mastery of black-and-white printmaking is evident in the precise rendering of Senator Pearce's features and clothing, relying on the fine hatching and line work characteristic of the wood engraving technique popular throughout the mid-19th century.

This work is housed in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, representing an important example of Homer’s illustrative output just prior to the Civil War. Prints of this early American work, due to its age and historical context, are often available through the public domain, ensuring this piece of nineteenth-century political and artistic history remains widely accessible for study and reference.