In the Hayloft 1878

Eastman Johnson painted this scene of children playing in a hayloft, sometime in the late nineteenth century. Johnson was known for his sympathetic depictions of everyday American life, but this image is not as straightforward as it might seem. Johnson was trained in Dusseldorf and The Hague, and his painterly technique reflects this European training, but the subject matter is distinctly American. The hayloft setting suggests a rural, agrarian society, but the clothing of the children indicates that they are not poor farm laborers. They are middle-class children at play. In the aftermath of the Civil War, many artists turned to scenes of childhood innocence, and the hayloft becomes a stage for a kind of nostalgia about an idealised, pre-industrial past. Art history isn't just about what is shown. It looks at the culture that frames the artwork. To learn more, look for books and articles about American art and culture in the late nineteenth century.