Husking the Corn in New England (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. II)

"Husking the Corn in New England (from 'Harper's Weekly,' Vol. II)" is an early, highly detailed work by Winslow Homer, created in 1858. Executed as a wood engraving, this type of print was the primary medium through which Homer established his reputation, serving as a commissioned illustration for mass circulation in the popular illustrated magazine Harper's Weekly. This phase of Homer’s career, dedicated entirely to commercial illustration, required the artist to become a swift and insightful chronicler of everyday American customs just before the outbreak of the Civil War.

The work captures a quintessential New England communal activity: the seasonal husking of corn. Homer presents a crowded, lively interior scene where men and women are gathered around massive piles of harvested ears. The image details the focused labor involved in preparing the crop for storage, illustrating the essential, cooperative nature of farm working life in mid-nineteenth-century society. Homer avoids romanticizing the event, instead providing a straightforward ethnographic record that emphasizes the dignity and community spirit inherent in this necessary domestic task.

Although limited by the black-and-white graphic restrictions of the print medium, Homer effectively uses strong contrasts of light and shadow to articulate the forms of the workers and the textures of the wooden barn. This piece is critically important for tracing the development of Homer's compositional skills and his early interest in regional American subjects before he turned substantially to oil painting. As a widely disseminated illustration from 1858, the image holds significant historical value and is often available today as high-quality prints accessed via public domain resources. This early wood engraving is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.