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Army Boots
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The Union’s Army of the Potomac, encamped in
close proximity to slavery throughout eastern Virginia,
employed hundreds of contrabands as cooks, laundrymen,
valets, and teamsters. Winslow Homer recorded this
aspect of camp life in an 1865 painting called Army
Boots, of two young boys inside of a tent belonging
to the second corps, as noted by the red trefoil
emblem painted on the canvas. Two hands of playing
cards lie at their reach, while a dusty pair of
army boots and a tin of black polish lie waiting
in front of them. |
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Winslow Homer (1836–1910)
Oil on canvas, 1865
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian
Institution
Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1966
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