Winslow Homer, Army Teamsters

(upbeat piano music)

- [Beth] We're in the American galleries

at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,

and we're looking at a
really interesting painting

by Winslow Homer called
"Army Teamsters," 1866.

So this is painted just after
the end of the Civil War,

but Homer spent quite
a bit of time painting

and making prints showing the
war to a Northern audience.

- [Christopher] In Homer's
travels with the Union Army,

he became acquainted
with the everyday aspects

of this huge operation
that required the moving

of so many men, goods, arms,
and so in "Army Teamsters,"

we see five men who are
presumably taking a moment off

from their main role in
moving the Union Army.

- [Beth] In art history,
when we think about

paintings of war time, we
think about battle scenes

or depictions of heroic
victory or heroic death,

but here we have a very everyday scene

which Homer would have
witnessed, and these are the men

who are driving the wagons
that we see in the background.

- [Christopher] For him,
it was that interest

in the humanity of all
of these different people

with the army, and
recognizing their hard work.

The four men who are
leaning against the tent

are those that who are
absolutely exhausted

from having moved these wagons and mules.

Now, the mules themselves,
all looking quite bedraggled,

show the amount of work
that has just occurred.

- [Beth] And we know that the issue

of black people serving in the Union Army

was a contentious one.

- [Christopher] So the
Union Army did train and arm

many black Americans,
but also men like these

might've been swept up into the Union Army

as they went through
especially Southern states

and they flocked to their
freedom to the Union Army,

where they could be enlisted
or at least provided

with the daily requirements of life.

through this very arduous labor.

- [Beth] During the Civil War,

enslaved people who make
their way to the Union Army,

who make their way north,
don't have to be returned

as property to their
owners, but can be kept

as what was called contraband of war.

And contraband is a difficult term to use

to talk about human beings.
- Yeah, absolutely.

- [Beth] And so, one term that
we used instead is refugees.

These figures who fled north,

who want to serve in the Union Army

and are often put in
the role of Teamsters,

of driving mule trains.

- [Christopher] They are self-emancipating

and they are trying to make the best

of their lives through
continued hard labor.

These figures don't seem
to rely on caricature.

We have Homer's original sketches

that are presumably based on five people,

and I think he's recognizing them

as fellow participants
in this cataclysmic war.

- [Beth] And in fact, when
we compare Homer's figures

to illustrations in Harpers,
there's one in particular

of Teamsters who were being paid

where the black figures
are very caricatured.

We clearly see that that's
not what Homer is doing here.

Nevertheless, a scene of black figures

relaxing in the sunshine did bring to mind

stereotyped images of
enslaved people as lazy.

- [Christopher] Critics and
viewers were responding to that.

There is a decades-long visual
history of precisely that,

the black body in a moment of
relaxation asleep in the sun,

something akin to what we see here.

- [Beth] And for Homer,
this interest in this lovely

late afternoon light where
the figures are casting

long shadows on the tent behind them.

- [Christopher] Perhaps
there's a coolness setting in

and capturing those last
moments of warm sunlight

is important to these men.

- [Beth] And "The Bright Side,"

perhaps alluding to the
future of these men,

a future that's brighter than enslavement.

- [Christopher] Homer sees that

as looking towards what's coming.

- [Beth] Let's talk for
a minute about the figure

who is sticking his
head out from the tent,

and who's the only figure who
seems to be engaging with us.

- [Christopher] Critics did
respond to his expression.

His emerging from the tent
is wholly playing into

preexisting stereotypes and caricatures

of the comic black
figure that you could see

in places like popular illustration,

but also the minstrel stage.

But what's interesting
is the grin or smirk

that were often ascribed to him

in contemporary printed reviews

doesn't seem to be apparent
in the actual painting itself.

- [Beth] We have four figures here,

one of whom's torso and
head are almost completely

eclipsed by the figure in the foreground.

- [Christopher] So the
Figure in the foreground,

who's holding a whip, seems
to be blocking the view

of a man who's wearing a
blue Union Army kepi cap,

something that would have been given

to the enlisted soldiers.

- [Beth] It's impossible
not to read the whip,

which would have been used
to drive the mule train,

also as a instrument of
punishment for enslaved people.

- [Christopher] This object was previously

used for punishment.

It can now drive one forward
into a new stage in life.

- [Beth] Because Homer is
embedded with the Union troops,

we get this view into the
everyday life of the Union Army

and the role that formerly
enslaved people could play

serving the Union effort.

- [Christopher] for Homer
and many of his colleagues,

he would have seen this
as a positive element,

being able to offer these men
freedom, labor, housing, food,

all in the continued effort to win the war

and be done with slavery once and for all.

(upbeat piano music)