The Dinner Horn (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XIV)

The Dinner Horn (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XIV) is a seminal wood engraving executed by Winslow Homer in 1870. This print exemplifies Homer’s early career focus on illustration for mass-market publications. Appearing in the widely popular illustrated magazine Harper's Weekly, the work provided contemporary viewers with vivid, relatable glimpses of American domestic and rural life during the Reconstruction era.

Homer captures a moment of domestic routine, centering on a woman standing outside a simple wooden house. She is performing the task suggested by the title, raising a distinctive curved instrument-like object-a dinner horn or trumpet-to her lips to call residents to the midday meal. The scene is grounded in quotidian detail; a watchful cat sits patiently at the woman's feet, awaiting the activity signaled by the sound. This genre scene utilizes the high contrast inherent in the wood engraving medium to emphasize the texture of the setting and the solidity of the female figure, underscoring the simple dignity of labor.

As a master of the wood engraving technique, Homer adapted his artistic vision for the requirements of mass reproduction, ensuring clarity and expressive detail despite the limitations of the medium. Works such as this one helped establish Homer’s reputation long before his mature oil paintings. This significant print is housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, preserving a valuable snapshot of 19th-century American life. Given the work's age and historical publication, high-quality public domain prints are widely accessible for study and appreciation today.