"You Are Really Picturesque, My Love" (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. V) 1868

Winslow Homer made this wood engraving, "You Are Really Picturesque, My Love" for "The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine" in the United States. The magazine illustration was a common format for visual art in the 19th century, acting as a populist counterweight to the elite, and exclusive, art world. This image presents a moment of domestic life, and we might ask what public role such an image played when it appeared in the magazine. In this era, there was a heightened cultural expectation for women to be beautiful, graceful, and ornamental, while a man had different expectations. Is Homer's engraving simply reinforcing those cultural norms? Or, is the title ironic? Is the woman being objectified? These are the kinds of questions a social art historian might ask. The answers could be sought through careful analysis of the image itself, but also through study of the magazine's readership, editorial policies, and other related engravings. Only then can we understand the social function of art.