Deer-Stalking in the Adirondacks in Winter

Mr. Winslow Homer presents an effective sketch of one aspect of winter sporting in the Adirondack Wilderness. When the snow is so deep as to hinder the deer, the sportsmen put on snow-shoes, which . . . are quite as helpful in keeping the hunter out of the snow and enabling him to traverse the wilderness on its surface with a rapidity and noiselessness which are fatal to the deer.

The narratives accompanying Homer’s Adirondack illustrations assumed that the figures in these scenes were outsiders to the region known as sportsmen—primarily urban males drawn by the opportunities to hunt and fish. Nevertheless, most of these figures are identified by feature and dress as local residents whom the artist knew from his visits to Baker’s Clearing. During the hunting season, these woodsmen acted as guides and hands to the visitors. They, themselves, hunted for subsistence rather than sport.