2-748-298 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Women Working in a Field, 1867. In December 1866, Winslow Homer sailed from Boston for a year of study in France. Since the early 1850s he had known the principles of French painting, particularly the outdoor style of the Barbizon School. Many of his artist friends were interested in this modern French school-among them William Morris Hunt (1824-1879), who owned an extensive collection of Barbizon paintings, including ten works by Jean-François Millet (1814-1875). This painting shows Millet's influence in both subject matter and technique, especially the bold brushwork and simplified forms painted with flat, unshaded patches of colour. While in France, Homer spent most of his time working in Paris and the rural village of Cernay-la-Ville in Picardy, about 40 miles from the French capital. This oil sketch was probably painted there.