# Our Army before Yorktown, Virginia, from Harper's Weekly, May 3, 1862

**Winslow Homer** (American, 1836–1910)  
1862  
wood engraving on paper  
image: 13 3/4 x 20 3/4 in. (34.9 x 52.7 cm) irregular

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1996.63.116. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=37060).

## About this work

This wood engraving, published in Harper’s Weekly on May 3, 1862, shows Union forces during the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, early in General McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign. Winslow Homer, then a young illustrator, had travelled with the army that spring, and his drawings were cut into woodblocks by professional engravers in New York so they could be printed with the weekly’s text. Such images brought the war into American homes and gave Homer the close knowledge of soldiers’ lives that shaped his first paintings.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Winslow Homer made this in 1862, aged 26. It is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Engraving.** Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.

### [Winslow Homer](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/winslow-homer)

American, 1836–1910; born in Boston, Massachusetts; died in Prouts Neck, Maine

Homer began as an illustrator, covering the Civil War for Harper’s Weekly, and first made his name in painting with scenes of soldiers and country life. A stay at the fishing village of Cullercoats on the English coast in 1881–82 turned him towards the sea, and from 1883 he lived at Prouts Neck, Maine, painting the Atlantic in all weathers. He was also a fluent watercolourist in the Adirondacks, Canada and the Caribbean, and The Gulf Stream draws on those southern journeys.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Graphic Arts-Print
- The artist was 26
- Real size: about 14 × 21 in (35 × 53 cm). The 16 × 20 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Sailing ships, Boats and boating, Soldiers, Literature, Architecture, Occupations, American Civil War (1861-1865), Figure group
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1991.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1991/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/our-army-before-yorktown-virginia-from-harper-s-weekly-may-3-si-saam-1996-63-116).