The Dinner Horn 1870

Curator: Winslow Homer's "The Dinner Horn," from 1870, strikes me as a surprisingly dynamic scene captured in a black-and-white print. What's your initial take on it? Editor: There’s a real sense of domesticity, and I can almost hear the sound echoing across the landscape, cutting through the quiet. You feel the simple, direct act of summoning people back to the table. Curator: Homer made this for Harper's Weekly, relying on the skills of wood engravers to translate his vision into mass media. The act of transferring from Homer's original drawing to the woodblock, then the printing itself, mediates the artistic statement. How do you see the technique impacting its message? Editor: Well, think about the impact of Harper’s Weekly itself – it brought scenes of everyday life to a broad public, shaping perceptions of American identity. This piece would have contributed to ideas about rural life and family structures at the time, particularly as the country reckoned with Reconstruction after the Civil War. It portrays a vision, albeit a limited one, of unity in the United States. Curator: Absolutely. This print underscores the role of the woman – probably a wife or mother – in managing the household labor. I wonder, how much control did the wood engravers have over the final product's visual nuances, especially considering the detailed cross-hatching? This process speaks to divisions of artistic and manual labor in American visual culture during the 19th century. Editor: Indeed. It served a distinct social function by constructing and reinforcing images of an idyllic rural life. The fact that such images became so popular also implies an audience hungry for comforting visual stories at a time of considerable change and upheaval. The 'politics of imagery', as you were hinting at earlier, makes this piece more than just the subject of domesticity at the surface level. Curator: Seeing the physical act of printing brings an added dimension that helps us question what realities are portrayed. Thank you, these political nuances contextualize Homer's scene nicely! Editor: Thank you for highlighting the materiality, that makes it easier to think of its original audience and cultural impact in the country.