Winslow HomerUSA, 1836–1910Dressing for the Carnival
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Om maleriet
Dressing for the Carnival (Dansk: Klædt på til karneval) er malet i 1877 af den amerikanske maler, grafiker og illustrator Winslow Homer.
Homer undgik fuldstændig det stereotype billede, som mange kunstnere på den tid gav af afroamerikanerne. I 1870'erne og 1880'erne – under genopbygningen efter den amerikanske borgerkrig – blev der produceret utallige karnevalsbilleder, hvor afroamerikanere på en nedladende måde bliver fremstillet som tankeløse og muntre.
Læs videre
Homers Dressing for the Carnival er i modsætning til dem en dybt nuanceret og tragisk scene fra forberedelserne til fest. En gruppe mennesker forbereder sig til den afrikansk-amerikanske festival, der er kendt i sydstaterne som Jonkonnu og i nordstaterne som Pinkster. Det omfattede påklædning af en Harlekin-lignende figur, og det skildrer Homer på billedet: en mand pyntet i laset tøj i gult, rødt og blåt og med en frihedshue på hovedet. To kvinder syr stofstykkerne på. Den ene, til højre, strækker armen og trækker den lange tråd igennem stoffet med en gestus af overbevisende og dyster alvor. Ved siden af hende stirrer nogle børn med undren på ceremonien. Den ene af dem holder et lille amerikansk flag – en kombination af 4. juli- og Jonkonnu-ritualer. Homer lader os fornemme, hvor langt håbet om frigørelse stadig er fra realiteterne i syden.
Oplysninger
- Inventarnummer
- 22.220
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Kilder
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Billede: Metropolitan Museum of Art — Open Access (CC0)
Imens i livet hos Winslow Homer
Hele livet1875
Gives up illustration for painting
In 1875 Homer, after nearly twenty years as an illustrator, quit commercial illustration and vowed to live on his paintings and watercolours alone. Despite his excellent critical reputation, his finances remained precarious.
1876
The Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia
“Snap the Whip” and “Breezing Up” were shown at the Centennial Exposition; the New York Tribune wrote that it could not remember a picture in any exhibition that could be named alongside “Breezing Up”. Henry James confessed that he detested Homer's subjects of the time, yet “to reward his audacity, he has incontestably succeeded”.
c. 1876
Visits to Virginia
Around 1876 Homer visited Petersburg, Virginia (apparently to see what had become of the lives of former slaves), and painted rural African American life, the most unaffected views of it at the time, such as “Dressing for the Carnival” (1877).
1877
First show at the Boston Art Club
In 1877 Homer exhibited at the Boston Art Club for the first time, with the oil painting “An Afternoon Sun”; from then until 1909 he showed there often.
late 1870s
A recluse in Gloucester
In the late 1870s, whether from disappointments with women or some other emotional turmoil, Homer became reclusive, abandoned urban social life and lived instead in Gloucester, for a while even in the secluded Eastern Point Lighthouse with the keeper's family. Watching the fishermen, the sea and the marine weather, he rediscovered his love of the sea and found a rich source of themes in it.
1878
A productive year at Valentine's farm
Homer spent 1878 as the guest of the industrialist Lawson Valentine at Houghton Farm, his property in the Adirondack Mountains, and it proved a particularly productive year. Valentine, whose paint company employed the artist's brother Charles as a chemist, was an early and important collector of Homer's work and later gave him a studio at the farm.
