American Paintings - Winslow Homer

The Veteran in a New Field

In an evocation of the Grim Reaper this Civil War veteran, his jacket and canteen discarded in the foreground, reaps golden wheat in a field. The scythe is strapped to the veteran in the way that his gun would have been during wartime. The viewer is denied the opportunity to see the veteran's face as he cuts down wheat in its prime; it only enhances the somber undertones of the painting.