Dressing for the Carnival
1877 · Oil on canvas · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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About this work
- Artist
- Winslow Homer (1836–1910)
- Year
- 1877
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 50.8 × 76.2 cm
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Movement
- Realism
In a sunlit yard in Virginia, two women sew a bright yellow and red costume onto a man standing between them, while a group of children watches and a small girl hangs back by the fence. Homer painted it after visiting Petersburg, Virginia, in the late 1870s, and the costume recalls the Caribbean-rooted Jonkonnu masquerade that formerly enslaved communities brought to holiday celebrations. It is one of a small group of pictures in which Homer looked closely and respectfully at Black family life after Emancipation. The Metropolitan Museum bought it in 1922.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A warm green-and-gold scene with a burst of red and yellow for a living room, study or hallway in a dark wood frame. It suits warm white, olive or terracotta walls at 16×24 and pairs with Homer's The Veteran in a New Field.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Realism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1877)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- living room, hallway or entryway, study or library, dining room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Dressing for the Carnival in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Dressing for the Carnival painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
