Sheep Resting

Winslow Homer's study of resting sheep demonstrates the artist's naturalistic approach to rural subjects. The composition arranges multiple figures across the page in varied poses—some recumbent, others alert—rendered in Homer's characteristic combination of pen line and watercolor wash. Dark accents in wool and facial features provide visual rhythm across the composition. Such studies served as working sketches for Homer's larger pastoral paintings, capturing the quiet observation of farm life that preoccupied American landscape artists in the late nineteenth century.