Jurors Listening to Counsel, Supreme Court, New City Hall, New York

The influential American artist Winslow Homer created Jurors Listening to Counsel, Supreme Court, New City Hall, New York in 1869. This striking example of a print, specifically a wood engraving, captures a moment of civic life in post-Civil War America. As was typical of the period, Homer’s work was often created for mass reproduction in illustrated journals, making such prints accessible to a wide audience across the United States.

The composition focuses on the intense concentration of the jurors seated in the Supreme Court, counterbalanced by the dynamic gesture of the counsel addressing them. Homer excelled at capturing the distinct physiognomy and psychological intensity of his subjects, rendering the heavy atmosphere of the legal environment through the dense cross-hatching typical of wood engraving technique. Although early in his career, this work demonstrates Homer’s sophisticated ability to convey narrative through figure study and journalistic observation.

This detailed representation of American jurisprudence provides valuable insight into 19th-century urban society and the documentation practices prevalent in periodicals. Because the original publication prints were widely distributed, the work is often available today in the public domain, allowing institutions and researchers access to high-quality reproductions. This important piece of graphic art is housed in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.