Waiting for Calls on New Year's Day (from "Harper's Bazar," Vol. II)

Waiting for Calls on New Year's Day (from "Harper's Bazar," Vol. II) is a detailed wood engraving created by Winslow Homer in 1869. Produced for mass circulation in the prominent fashion and cultural magazine Harper's Bazar, this print captures a specific American social ritual of the 19th century. Homer, already a noted illustrator, utilized the demanding technique of wood engraving to translate complex domestic scenes into reproducible images for a wide audience.

The work focuses intimately on an interior setting where women, dressed in fashionable attire, await visitors. New Year's Day in the mid-1800s dictated that men would formally call upon female acquaintances, offering greetings and showing respect, while the women remained home to receive them. Homer depicts the expectation and quiet stillness of this moment. The compositional strength lies in the detailed portrayal of the domestic space, highlighting furnishings and the geometry of the room, grounding the scene firmly within the Victorian parlor aesthetic. Homer often used such genre scenes to subtly explore contemporary social dynamics, capturing moments of everyday life often overlooked by traditional fine art.

As an important example of American graphic art from the post-Civil War era, this piece demonstrates Homer’s skill not only as a painter but as a commercial illustrator capable of sophisticated narrative structure. This historical print is preserved in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Because of its age and cultural significance, the work is often found in the public domain, making high-quality reproductions of Homer's illustrative prints widely available for study and appreciation.