The Civil War is known to be the war with the most fatalities in American history.  Battles were fought amongst friends and family and left behind only death and destruction.  This painting, The Veteran in a New Field, by Winslow Homer, displays a union soldier tending to a field after the Civil War.  The painting explores themes of death as well as rebuilding after the war.  These themes are communicated through the objects in the environment and the subject.

The subject of the painting can be identified as a union soldier because of the jacket in the lower right corner of the painting.  The jacket was a symbol of the fact that this man was a warrior and had to endure a terrible war, and probably kill people in the process.  Since the jacket is laid aside within the field, it can be assumed that he took it off right before he started working.  He shed his jacket, as well as the life of a soldier, after the war.  The fact that the jacket is still physically close to him could mean that he still has not quite let go of everything that has happened to him, and the pains he had experienced, though behind him, will remain.

There is also a canteen lying on top of his jacket.  This is also an indicator that he was in the war.  The canteen provided for him and gave him water, something he probably looked to for comfort in all of the despair around him.  He is doing very strenuous work, which likely requires him to drink lots of water, and since he is a union soldier, he is likely in the northern United States, meaning that he would need his jacket to keep him warm.  This means that although he has left his old life behind, he still keeps around the objects and memories about it that he still may need, which is a very positive thing.

What is a bit odd about the painting is that, though it is likely colder where he is located geographically, he is still dressed fairly warm.  He has not even rolled up his sleeves.  A contrast to this is his sun hat.  Lots of sunlight makes temperatures warmer, and since the weather does not appear to be that of the fall or winter due to the clear blue skies, it is a bit strange that he is dressed for both warm and cold climates.  It is almost as if he is experiencing being in both parts of the country at once- the part that he calls home and the part that he fought in.  This is yet another reminder that he has not left behind what he went through.  He is, however, bracing himself for the worst of both of the climates’ weather.  Perhaps he is not confused about what the dress for, but rather he is using his experience prepared for the unexpected.  This could not have been more important during the time of recovery during the post-war period in America.  No one had peace of mind and everyone needed to expect the worst in order to survive and maintain what life that had left.

Arguably the most important part of the painting is what the subject is doing.  He is reaping.  This man shows can be easily compared to death.  After a war, he takes his scythe and reaps what has been grown after the seeds of war have been planted.  The wheat is a symbol for all of the lives that had been taken in the war, which is likely to be the reason that the field seemingly goes on forever.  The painter made it so that the viewer of the painting could not see the end of the field, probably because the amount of death that occurred is nearly unimaginable.

One interesting part of the painting is that it does not seem as though the veteran has been reaping for a very long time.  There is not a large amount of wheat on the ground.  His jacket and canteen are also nearby, and since he probably placed them at his starting point, he has not gotten very far in his task.  This could be due to the fact that the war has not been over for a substantial amount of time, and the costs and downfalls of the aftermath of the war have just begun.  It could also mean that there is still a lot to be done now that the war is over.

Not only could the reaping signify reaping of lives, but it could also mean rebuilding.  Wheat is typically turned into bread and other types of food, which represent health and the creating of resources.  This also relates back to the idea that there is still a lot to be done since the harvesting has just begun.  Sunny skies are also a symbol of new beginnings or happy endings, so this painting, though it has themes of loss and despair from war, also has themes of hope.

Paintings typically represent a single moment in time.  This is why they typically do not draw several images of the same object to display movement, like in a cartoon, for example.  This painting, however, does exactly that.  The subject of the painting swings his scythe at the wheat, and five less-detailed images of the blade appear in front of the scythe.  The fact that these repeated images appear in front of the blade means that the subject is moving his tool away from the wheat, as if he has just cut down a bunch of crop.  This does not make much sense since all of the chopped down wheat is behind the man.  There is some wheat to the subject’s right that is toppling down, but this could just be due to the wind and not the subject’s hard work.  

By the time of the Civil War, the mid to late nineteenth century, plenty of advanced tools had come about during the industrial revolution for farming.  Why is this man using an archaic tool to reap his wheat?  Perhaps it has to do with the idea that death is very old, and thus has a very old tool that he uses.  This relates back to the idea of the subject being related to death.

In conclusion, the painting The Veteran in a New Field by Winslow Homer represents themes of death and hope in the time after the Civil war in the United States.  These themes are communicated through the comparison of the veteran to the angel of death and to an old farmer making an honest living and harvesting a plentiful crop.  There are positive and negative ways to view reconstruction after the war.