"Bachelor's Choice" circa 1897 (1 Viewer)

[PolarBear]

This diorama was influenced by Winslow Homer's 1869 wood engraving The Beach At Long Branch done for Appleton's Journal. Homer's illustration depicts a top-hatted gentleman surrounded by a bevy of eligible young women out promenading along the beach. In the Victorian era a situation like this was referred to as "walking the gauntlet". In the latter half of the 19th C, seaside resorts became locations where individuals could transgress the traditional rules of conduct. The beaches became sites for summer romance allowing young women to show off their beauty and look for possible mates.

Figures from Wm. Hocker sets 228 and 118

 

[PolarBear]

How much of this relaxation social rules was due to the wholesale destruction of a generation of young men? The casualty figures from the civil war still boggle my mind. Do you know of any studies on the subject?

Mike

You make a good point. This is also why in the decade after the end of the Civil War paintings of and stories about children were very popular in America. They were putting their hopes in the next generation. Winslow Homer did many paintings of both women (The Bridle Path) and children (Boys in a Pasture) in these years. Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women are all examples of the literary fascination with children in the postwar years. Since husbands and fathers were off to fight the war, women gained a new level of freedom and independence as a result and many like Alcott (hospital nurse)participated in the war effort. Little Women is a good example of this in the popular culture of the time. In the 1870s we see the rise of the New Woman who is more free and independent and not afraid to break the rules. Henry James novel Daisy Miller (1878) illustrates this type fully. The so-called "American Girl" of the period was often a shock to her European contemporaries. The presence of more women than men on the beach likely reflects the loss of males during the war--a situation similar to Britain after the Great War. As an art historian, I have found the book Off the Pedestal: New Women in the Art of Homer, Chase and Sargent very helpful. The films of Little Women with Wynona Ryder and Daisy Miller with Cybil Shepherd capture the changing roles of women during and after the Civil War respectively.

The title The Bridle Path for Homer's painting of a young "New Woman" riding in the White Mountains of New Hampshire has a double meaning--a path for riding and a path to matrimony for this epitome of the postwar American Girl.

BTW--nice sculpts and toy soldiers in your album.

 

[PolarBear]

Thanks for the information (and your kind words). I was using the public computer when I read your post so I picked up Hendricks' massive survey of Homer on the way out. I've done a preliminary scout through it; looking forward to a leisurely stroll! [That "steampunk" rocket he drew as a kid is amazing!]

Mike

I love your link to Steampunk. I had never thought of it that way. Homer and his brother Charles loved to fish in Quebec. See if your library has or can get the book Winslow Homer: Artist and Angler which contains an essay "Winslow Homer in Quebec" by David Tatham my doctoral advisor and colleague at Syracuse University where I worked for 25 years. I have about 60 books on Homer and can suggest more sources if you get hooked. (no fishing pun intended^&grin )

Randy

 

[mikemiller1955]

Very nice vignette Randy...it reminds me of some of the old pictures I have seen of the "gents and ladies" on Galveston beaches...

 

[glossman]

Hello Randy,

A very charming display with a hint of romance in the air.....nicely done.

Thanks, Raymond