A Visit from the Old Mistress [SEP] creator
A Visit from the Old Mistress
A Visit from the Old Mistress is an 1876 painting by American artist Winslow Homer. It was one of several works that Homer created during a mid-1870s visit to Virginia, where he had served as a war correspondent during the Civil War. Scholars have noted that the painting's composition is taken from Homer's earlier painting "Prisoners from the Front," which depicts a group of captive Confederate soldiers defiantly regarding a Union officer. It, along with Homer's other paintings of black southern life
communities seeking to understand their future. His oil painting "A Visit from the Old Mistress" (1876) shows an encounter between a group of four freed slaves and their former mistress. The formal equivalence between the standing figures suggests the balance that the nation hoped to find in the difficult years of Reconstruction. Homer composed this painting from sketches he had made while traveling through Virginia.
Near the beginning of his painting career, the 27-year-old Homer demonstrated a maturity of feeling, depth of perception, and mastery of