Winslow Homer, born Boston, MA - The Skating Season-1862, from Harper's Weekly, January 18, 1862 - 1862 - T-Shirt

An 1862 wood engraving by Winslow Homer shows a crowd of skaters enjoying a frozen pond, with a full moon hanging over bare winter trees.

Visual Elements & Composition

The scene is built in black, mid grey and light grey, with white reserved for the ice and pale winter sky. A wide horizontal landscape stretches across the plate, with distant rolling hills on the far side. Skaters fill the middle ground, including a woman in a fur bonnet and a long dark dress, a man in a top hat, and a boy pulling a child on a sled. A split-rail fence and bare trees frame the pond. The title, THE SKATING SEASON—1862., is set into the image itself.

Meaning & Symbolism

Homer published this engraving in Harper's Weekly on January 18, 1862, in the first months of the American Civil War. Its focus on leisure and community shows a public still keeping up its seasonal habits while the country was divided. The skaters stand for ordinary life carrying on, and the piece records the social customs of mid-nineteenth-century America. It was made early in Homer's career, when he worked as a freelance illustrator for the Northern press before turning to full-time painting.

Crafted for the Winter Tee

An engraving like this rewards a closer look, and a tee brings the scene close to the body in the same way. The crowd, the moon and the sled ride stay in view as you move, so the story reads as you go about your day. Wearing it puts a piece of Homer's record of American winter leisure in an everyday setting.