The Brierwood Pipe (Q7720110)

Label from: English (en)

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movement: American realism (Q4745527)
artist: Winslow Homer (Q344838)
collection: Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415)
location: Smithsonian American Art Museum (Q1192305) Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415)
country of origin: United States of America (Q30)
owned by: Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415) Helen Foster (Q28311710) Zabdiel Boylston Adams (Q28311717) Annie Adams Fields (Q566895) James Thomas Fields (Q4483821)
material used: oil paint (Q296955) canvas (Q12321255)
location of final assembly: United States of America (Q30)
depicts: Zouave (Q13638325) pipe (Q104526)
instance of: painting (Q3305213)

catalog URL: https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.524

information from the Smithsonian American Art Museum catalog

description: Homer’s subject was inspired by a sentimental poem popular at the time, in which a Civil War soldier carves a wooden pipe and daydreams of the time when the conflict will end so that he can return home. The painting depicts two volunteers for the Union Army who sport their regiment’s highly colorful uniforms, a design soon discovered as impractical due to its ability to be spotted by sharpshooters. The museum acquired this work during World War II. It seems likely that the painting’s imagery was viewed as especially significant for its wartime audience.

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