Spring

Two figures lean against a wooden fence, looking out over a muted gray landscape dotted with green foliage and lines of hanging laundry drying in the open air. The composition balances the quiet domestic detail of the wash against the broader stretch of countryside behind it. Winslow Homer made this watercolor and pencil work on paper in 1878, and it is now held at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Homer, who lived from 1836 to 1910, worked in the realism movement and became known for images such as Autumn Tree Tops. Worth noticing is how the fence line divides the scene, grounding the figures in the foreground while the pale sky and distant foliage stretch out behind them, giving the whole image a sense of open, unhurried space.