Girl Seated on a Rail Fence

Created while the artist was visiting a friend’s country residence in upstate New York, these two drawings evince the immediacy of on-the-spot sketches. Winslow Homer described his rustic subjects with nimble and economical strokes of his pencil that capture the overall impression with minimal detail.

Rural children were a favorite subject for Homer and American audiences in this period. Their popularity was fueled by post–Civil War optimism, as well as nostalgia for pastoral life in the face of rampant industrialization and urbanization.