* Visual Rhetoric
Winslow Homer
Farmer With a Pitchfork
Oil on Board, 1870’s
600” x 436”
Just like a tree begins from a seed, a finished project needs to start with an idea. Winslow Homer depicts the beginning of objects in his paintings. From 1836-1910, Winslow Homer was an American landscape, painter and point maker. Homer is considered one of the foremost painter’s in the 19th century. He painted, “Farmer with a pitchfork,” in the 1870’s. “Farmer with a Pitchfork” has many meanings and even though it shows simplicity and looks uncomplicated in the oil painting, there is a deeper meaning in the painting. Paintings are great for deeper meanings because two people can look at the same painting and can come up with totally different meaning.
In this simple painting; there is a guy in a red shirt, holding a pitchfork, over his shoulders while overlooking the land. The land shows green grass, with boulders a couple places, and looks to be a great place to begin farming. The farmer is central to the painting as he stands out in a red shirt. I think this is perfect because it centers our perspective to be able to look at the rest of the picture and to see it from the farmer’s point of view. It is easy to view the land as a project, that with a little work, it can be ready to till and produce. It looks flat enough to be able to water, along with moving the boulders to make it ready to begin producing.
“Farmer with a pitchfork,” depicts a deeper meaning to. Homer paints the farmer ready to work with a pitchfork on hand and him standing in front of the land analyzing his plan of attack on how he can flourish the land. This deeper meaning depicts the farmer romanticizing and idealizing on what the land has to offer. The landscape can produce; corn, hay, wheat and prime to produce other things. It also shows that farmers are hard-working and can turn nothing into something. Turning nothing into something is exactly what Homer did while painting this picture and with this picture, he helps us to visualize both the simplicity and the deeper meaning in, “Farmer with a Pitchfork.
Sources:
Homer, Winslow. Farmer With a Pitchfork. 1870. Oil Painting.
Winslow Homer
Farmer With a Pitchfork
Oil on Board, 1870’s
600” x 436”
Just like a tree begins from a seed, a finished project needs to start with an idea. Winslow Homer depicts the beginning of objects in his paintings. From 1836-1910, Winslow Homer was an American landscape, painter and point maker. Homer is considered one of the foremost painter’s in the 19th century. He painted, “Farmer with a pitchfork,” in the 1870’s. “Farmer with a Pitchfork” has many meanings and even though it shows simplicity and looks uncomplicated in the oil painting, there is a deeper meaning in the painting. Paintings are great for deeper meanings because two people can look at the same painting and can come up with totally different meaning.
In this simple painting; there is a guy in a red shirt, holding a pitchfork, over his shoulders while overlooking the land. The land shows green grass, with boulders a couple places, and looks to be a great place to begin farming. The farmer is central to the painting as he stands out in a red shirt. I think this is perfect because it centers our perspective to be able to look at the rest of the picture and to see it from the farmer’s point of view. It is easy to view the land as a project, that with a little work, it can be ready to till and produce. It looks flat enough to be able to water, along with moving the boulders to make it ready to begin producing.
“Farmer with a pitchfork,” depicts a deeper meaning to. Homer paints the farmer ready to work with a pitchfork on hand and him standing in front of the land analyzing his plan of attack on how he can flourish the land. This deeper meaning depicts the farmer romanticizing and idealizing on what the land has to offer. The landscape can produce; corn, hay, wheat and prime to produce other things. It also shows that farmers are hard-working and can turn nothing into something. Turning nothing into something is exactly what Homer did while painting this picture and with this picture, he helps us to visualize both the simplicity and the deeper meaning in, “Farmer with a Pitchfork.
Sources:
Homer, Winslow. Farmer With a Pitchfork. 1870. Oil Painting.