The Veteran in a New Field

Winslow Homer

Oil on canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art

This profound oil painting depicts a Union Army veteran harvesting wheat with a scythe, his military jacket and canteen discarded in the corner. Created just months after the Civil War's end and President Lincoln's assassination, the work masterfully balances grief and hope through its symbolic imagery—the single-bladed scythe evoking the Grim Reaper while the bountiful golden wheat suggests national rebirth. Winslow Homer, who served as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly on the Civil War's front lines, brings firsthand emotional understanding to this meditation on America's sacrifice and potential for recovery.