Printed cloth
Artist/Culture
French
Dateearly 18th century
MediumCotton
Dimensions76.2 x 90.2 cm (30 x 35 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsTextiles
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Terms
Object number1927.2
Label Text
Answering the Horn confounded Homer’s critics shortly after he began exhibiting it in 1876. Some were puzzled by the call itself, questioning why the man raised his arm in response; others imagined a quarrel between the young man and woman, who covers her mouth. Open-ended narrative content was part of Homer’s appeal, both before and after his trip to England, and one he wrestled with throughout his career. Regardless of their thoughts on the painting’s story, most agreed on the expert execution of the figures, with one making the obvious comparisons to nineteenth-century French painters of the rural peasantry: “The girl, in her sunbonnet and plain country dress, frank yet half-shy in her simple purity, is as picturesque as any Breton peasant.”ProvenanceEdgar L. AshleyOn View
Not on view19th/early 20th century
19th/early 20th century
19th/early 20th century