Winslow Homer, born Boston, MA - Trapping in the Adirondacks, from Every Saturday- An Ilustrated Journal of - 1870 - T-Shirt

This design shows two trappers working a still pond in the Adirondack woods, one paddling a birchbark canoe while the other raises a trapped animal on a pole.

Visual Elements & Composition

The scene is built in ink black, sepia grey and pale tan on a cream paper ground, with cream dominating the image. Dense engraved lines describe the water, the wooded hills and the dead trees rising at the edges, while the canoe runs as a long vertical silhouette through the centre. A rifle lies across the boat, and lily pads spread across the pond in the lower part of the frame. The engraved vignette is framed by a rectangle, with the words HOMER and TRAPPING IN THE ADIRONDACKS. — DRAWN BY WINSLOW HOMER. (SEE PAGE 585.) set in the printed caption.

Meaning & Symbolism

Homer made this wood engraving for Every Saturday, the illustrated journal of 1870, and it records the daily labour of men who lived by trapping in the wilderness. The canoe, the rifle and the carried catch show work tied directly to the land, and the empty water and bare trees show the isolation that came with it. Homer began as a magazine illustrator, and this piece marks the point where his reportage for the press was turning toward the realist painting he later became known for. The original belongs to the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A tee is worn close to the body and seen from every side as its wearer moves, so the engraving is read in pieces: the canoe at the chest, the hills and trees carried across the shoulders. Fine hatched lines like these reward a closer look, and the scene stays legible at a glance across a room. The composition gives the wearer a quiet, contemplative image of nineteenth-century American wilderness work.