Allow Me to Examine the Young Lady 1860

Winslow Homer's 1860 wood engraving, *Allow Me to Examine the Young Lady,* is a humorous illustration from the novel *The Lamplighter,* by Maria Susanna Cummins. This small, intimate scene captures the everyday life of a family, perhaps a mother and her children, or friends gathering for a visit. In the center of the engraving, a woman stands with her back to the viewer, her hand raised to protect her face. A man dressed in a coat with a tall hat is speaking to a group of people gathered around a table, seemingly to the woman’s right. The man is clearly the subject of the humorous title, *Allow Me to Examine the Young Lady.* The other figures in the engraving have their faces turned away from the viewer, leaving us to only glimpse the woman as the focal point of the scene, making her the subject of the man's attention.