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Charlotte Mason Picture Study Aid Winslow Homer

Prisoners from the Front

1866
oil on canvas
61 x 96.5 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

(on view at Gallery 762)
KEY TOPICS:

• This piece depicts a scene from the American Civil War with three Confederate soldiers in

gray and brown on the left, two Union soldiers on guard behind them, and one Union
officer to the right.
1
• The painting is based on a real incident that occurred on June 21, 1864 when Brigadier

General Francis Channing Barlow (seen on the right) captured several Confederate soldiers

at Petersburg, Virginia during the Siege of Petersburg.
2
• On the ground in front of the main group on the left are the guns of the Confederate
soldiers and a large crowd of Union soldiers can be seen behind them.

nd
• The white flag with a red clover in the right distance belonged to the 1 Division of the 2
st
3
Corp, which was Barlow’s division. The same clover can be seen on the hat of the Union
soldier in the middle of the painting holding his gun upright.

• This was the painting that truly made Whistler famous and fully embraced the Realism that
he so passionately believed in.
4

1 (Johns)
2 2 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
3 (Cikovsky and Kelly)
4 (Beneduce)

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