# The Red School House **Winslow Homer** (American, 1836–1910) 1873 oil on canvas overall: 55.5 x 39.5 cm (21 7/8 x 15 9/16 in.) framed: 65.4 x 49.9 x 4.4 cm (25 3/4 x 19 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.) Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985.64.21. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.66419.html). ## About this work A young woman, perhaps the schoolteacher, stands holding her books in a striped white dress and ruffled hat, her head turned away, while behind her the red schoolhouse glows under a pale sunset sky and a few small figures gather at the door. Winslow Homer painted a series of country school scenes in the early 1870s, celebrating the one-room schoolhouse as a symbol of American rural life after the Civil War and the young women who often taught in them. The large, confident figure set against the simple landscape gives her a quiet independence. _Written by Ochre Editions._ Winslow Homer painted this in 1873, aged 37. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. ### What you’re looking at Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman stands close to us with a red schoolhouse in the distance under a sunset sky in this vertical painting. The woman’s body faces us, but she turns her head to look off to the left with light brown eyes. She has a short, straight nose, full pink lips, and a round face. Her blond hair is pulled up under a round white hat layered with ruffles, which lies like a pancake over the top of her head. Her white dress is vertically striped with thin rust-red lines and has a long-sleeved, tight-fitting bodice and a long skirt. A dark gray belt is cinched around her narrow waist, and she wears a black, lacy ruffle around her neck. The woman’s arms hang by her sides, and she holds two paperback-sized books in her left hand, to our right. An earth-brown lawn stretches back to the schoolhouse, which has crimson-red walls, a chimney, and a dark gray roof. Three forms painted with a few streaks of dark or light gray or topaz blue suggest people standing near the door of the schoolhouse. Trees and a grassy lawn beyond the building are loosely painted with blended strokes. The sky is shaded pale lemon yellow and light peach with touches of rose pink. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “HOMER 1873.” _Description from the National Gallery of Art._ ### How it was made - **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled. ### [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: Painting - The artist was 37 - Real size: about 22 × 16 in (56 × 40 cm). The 16 × 20 in print is close to life size. - Century: 19th century - Subjects: female, Standing - 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/1610.jpg?dl=1 - Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1610/1920.jpg - Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86 - Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208 - Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118 - Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5 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/the-red-school-house-nga-66419).