Interpretive Resource

In the years following the Civil War, enthusiasm for the English game of croquet swept North America. Winslow Homer responded to this trend, depicting the fashionable pastime in two wood engravings and five oil paintings, including the Art Institute’s Croquet Scene. Homer had begun his career as an illustrator, working from 1854 to 1857 as an apprentice in John H. Bufford’s Boston lithography shop and then as a regular contributor and war correspondent to Harper’s Weekly. This training gave him a keen eye for detail and an interest in documenting social convention.

Croquet Scene reveals Homer’s familiarity with the game and its etiquette; the positions of the participants correspond to those illustrated in instruction manuals. As in his other croquet paintings, female figures predominate, reflecting the prevailing attitude that croquet provided a physical recreation in which women could compete with men while maintaining their modesty through strict, decorous comportment. Here, the exact moment in the game is evident: lifting her skirt hem to steady the ball with her foot, the woman in red prepares to "croquet," that is, to knock her opponent’s ball off the field.

Despite this wealth of detail, Croquet Scene transcends the conventions of illustration. There is no explicit narrative, and the outcome of the game is irrelevant. Homer’s close recording of contemporary life reveals a modern sensitivity to form as well as content. But unlike the French Impressionists, Homer was not interested in representing atmospheric disintegration of form. Rather, his work distinguishes itself by its very solidity. Here for example the bright primary colors of the women’s dresses contrast with a background of subtle shades of green, and the afternoon sun plays upon—but does not erode or dissolve—their strong, simple shapes.