American Art Collaborative

In 1873 a critic writing in the New York Daily Graphic said that Winslow Homer’s works were “as fresh and full of nature as a breath of hawthorne on a May morning. The theme in all is the same—a breezy bit of landscape and a young woman . . . a possible Lillie or Fannie lies in a hammock reading with patches of sunlight lying here and there on drapery and grass.” The simple charm of this work belies its meticulous composition and finely rendered details, from the way the girl’s shoes dangle gracefully off the hammock to the sunlight that cascades across her skirt and the brilliant green that provides an idyllic backdrop.