Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket
Eastman Johnson (American, 1824–1906)
1876
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 69.6 × 138.2 cm (27 3/8 × 54 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Nantucket Island
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Gift of Honoré and Potter Palmer
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Eastman Johnson painted this composition in 1876, 100 years after the founding of the United States. The centennial fostered a sense of nostalgia among some residents as industrialization and urban growth rapidly transformed the nation. Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket depicts a seasonal gathering on the rural Massachusetts island. Community members work together to shuck corn and ready the harvest, a traditional activity that was far removed from daily life for many in the late 19th century. Johnson employed a warm palette and loose brushwork to describe this agrarian subject, presenting an uncomplicated vision of cooperation and closeness to the land.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
