The Dinner Horn

The Dinner Horn is a wood engraving created by Winslow Homer in 1870. This piece exemplifies the crucial role of the print medium in the United States during the immediate post-Civil War era. Homer, who began his career as an illustrator, frequently utilized the technique of wood engraving, which allowed his work to be widely disseminated in popular periodicals and journals of the period, bringing scenes of American culture and daily life to a mass audience.

As an artist working primarily in illustration during this time, Homer refined his skill as a draughtsman, focusing heavily on themes of domesticity, childhood, and agrarian existence. Although he is now internationally recognized for his later oil paintings and watercolors, these early prints are foundational to understanding his artistic development. The medium of wood engraving, requiring precision and strong contrasts, influenced the graphic clarity evident throughout Homer’s subsequent works.

The subject matter, inferred from the title, likely depicts the traditional rural custom of sounding a horn to signal a family or farmhands that a meal is ready. This focus on ordered, commonplace routines reflects the cultural ideals prevalent in the United States during the transition and reconstruction of the period. These types of popular prints provided a common visual language for documenting and interpreting American identity.

This significant work of American printmaking is part of the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Due to the nature of the original publication and its age, reproductions of this image are frequently available through public domain art collections, ensuring continued access to this important historical piece.