My Day at Home

William H. Howe, My Day at Home, 1906, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans, 1909.7.30
Copied William H. Howe, My Day at Home, 1906, oil on canvas, 24 1830 18 in. (61.376.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans, 1909.7.30
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Artwork Details

Title
My Day at Home
Date
1906
Dimensions
24 1830 18 in. (61.376.6 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of William T. Evans
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Keywords
  • Architecture — farm — barn
  • Animal — cattle
Object Number
1909.7.30

Artwork Description

William Henry Howe made a name for himself in France and the United States as a painter of animals. His farm scenes provided patrons with an antidote to the unnerving changes in American society brought about by industrialization. The prize bull and placid cow in these paintings evoke the patriarchal and matriarchal roles of a nineteenth-century household, and hark back to an ideal of agrarian America that seemed distant from the urban bustle of the Gilded Age.