The Veteran in a New Field

The painting’s story and details

In 1865 the American Civil War ended, while the country faced immense losses and Lincoln’s assassination. That year Homer painted a man returning to the grain harvest. The title names his new field. Objects left on the ground recall his previous one, the battlefield.

An army jacket and canteen lie at the lower right. These small objects identify the man as a former Union soldier. Without them he would appear simply as a reaper. Military service is represented by belongings taken off his body and set aside while he works.

The white shirt stretches across his back as his hands grip the long scythe shaft. Seen from behind, his face is hidden. Shoulders, bent elbows and planted feet convey the action.

The long blade passes low above the cut stalks. A scythe belongs both to farm labour and to the traditional figure of Death. The museum draws attention to that second association. After the recent war, the same implement could connect an abundant harvest with remembrance of the dead.

The standing grain rises almost to the worker’s shoulders. It blocks the distance, leaving no house or neighbouring plot in sight. The work is concentrated between a dense wall of ears and the cut stalks underfoot. The field’s extent continues beyond the canvas.

In the foreground, thin pale strokes cross ochre and green, suggesting individual stalks lying in different directions. Above them, the sky forms a broad, even band. Detailed ground and simple sky hold the figure at the centre of this shallow setting.

A preparatory drawing of the reaper survives. Homer studied the pose separately before bringing figure and field together. He approached this peacetime subject after working as a war correspondent. The harvest suggests life continuing, while jacket and scythe keep the return to labour connected with the war just experienced.