Winslow HomerEstados Unidos, 1836–1910Pitching Quoits
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Pitching Quoits is Homer’s first large-scale painting of the Civil War. It depicts a moment of leisure in a Union encampment. The game of quoits was ordinarily played with heavy metal rings, but the soldiers here improvise with readily available horseshoes as the seated figure in the center keeps score. The red tasseled caps, blue filigreed jackets, and baggy trousers identify the soldiers as members of the 5th New York Volunteer infantry, known as Duryee’s Zouaves. The regiment derived its name and uniforms from the original Zouaves, Algerian mercenaries who gained fame fighting for the French in the Crimean War (1853–56).
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Though the regiment lost three-fifths of its ranks in a single battle in 1862, Homer does not explicitly acknowledge the atrocities of the war. With their vacant stares and static postures, the soldiers underscore the boredom of life in camp and the exhaustion experienced in the long intervals between battles.
Harvard Art Museums
Ficha
- Número de inventario
- 1940.298
