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.

Winslow Homer lived during, and served, in the Civil War.  This in itself creates bias within the painting.  There are two possible ways that the details of the painting could support the opinions that Homer has about the war with respect to what side of the war that the veteran fought.  One way to do this is to make it so that the subject of the painting is of the opposite side of the war, and thereby somewhat skewing the painting’s meaning.  For example, if Homer had been a Union soldier, which he was, and the subject of his painting was a Confederate soldier, the painting might appear much darker than it would immediately seem (Rash, 88).  If the person reaping wheat in the painting was a Confederate soldier, a member of the losing side, there would be a greater sense of loss, and much more of a need to heal and rebuild than that of a Union soldier.  There are no true winners in war, but the member of the “winning” side does not have to give up their preferred way of life after the fighting is over.  The other way to create bias using the veteran’s alignment is to make it so that the veteran fought on the same side as the painter.  This is what Homer ends up doing, which may work even more to his advantage.  Homer paints about a topic with which he has experience and feelings.  This works to his advantage.  Not only can he better convey his message, but he is also capable of incorporating details that he would likely not have been able to had he not been a Union soldier.

If one did not know that Homer was a Union soldier, there are some very key details that would give hint to this matter.  Something worthy of consideration is the particular crop that the veteran is farming.  The subject of the painting reaps wheat, which is known to be one of the north’s most important crops.  This indicates that the veteran is a northern soldier.  Wheat is relevant to the Civil War in places other than the North, however.  There were places in the south, Texas in particular, where growing wheat divided people during the war.  In Texas, wheat growers in the northern portion of the state did not support the people in the southern portion of the state that did not grow wheat.  This is because the southern portion was far more dependent on slave labor, and therefore much more loyal to the Confederacy than the northern population of the state.  Even though the farming of a crop may not seem particularly important in this painting, it indicates a problem that is much more deeply rooted.  The farming of the wheat crop on its own does not have much significance, but in this context, it represents the dividing of a nation, and even the division of the Confederacy itself in some places (Lundberg, 29-31).

Arguably the most important part of the painting is what the subject is doing.  He is reaping.  This man 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.

The wheat is not the only detail indicative that the subject of the painting is a Union soldier.  A jacket and canteen rest in the lower right corner of the painting.  The color and appearance of his jacket resembles that of a Northern soldier (Rash 87). Though the jacket was primarily placed in the painting to indicate with which side the veteran identified, the jacket also possesses some meaning that might not be immediately noticeable.  The first thing to pay attention to when assigning meaning to this object is what the object means to the subject and how the subject is treating the object.  The veteran used the jacket to clothe and protect him in the chaos of war and battle.  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.

As mentioned earlier, there is also a canteen lying on top of his jacket. The canteen gave him water, something he probably looked to for comfort as well as survival in all of the despair surrounding him.  He is doing very strenuous work, which likely requires him to drink lots of water.  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.

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.

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.  There was controversy and criticism of Homer and his decision to use an anachronistic tool rather than one that was prevalent at the time that A Veteran in a New Field was painted.  Considering Homer probably put a lot of thought into this choice, the type of tool that he did decide on carries meaning for the painting.  

The Veteran in a New Field by Winslow Homer seems like a simple painting at first, but small details about the painting shape its meaning and message.  We learn facts about the veteran’s life, like that he was a Union soldier, and that he is farming after the war, but a deeper meaning is found upon further analysis.  Seemingly small and insignificant details such as the type of farming equipment he’s using, the type of crop he’s farming, and what his clothes look like, told us quite a lot about the veteran and the state of the country.  Themes of death and rebuilding are present in the painting, and though it is not obvious which idea contributes more to the overall meaning of the painting, they are two opposite ideas that work together to create a picture of what life was like after the Civil War in the United States.
