Winslow Homer  (1836 -1910)
The Bird-Catchers
Our Young Folks, Boston, August 1867
Wood engraving on wove paper

The boys are hunkered down in the mown fields trying to catch wild birds.  Homer’s drawing is an early masterpiece produced in 1865, published in 1867 as an illustration for a children's magazine.

This image is dated earlier than Homer's first documented visit to Hurley which was in the summer of 1871 as noted by art critics.  Some historians believe that Homer visited Hurley as early as fall of 1865.  In any case, this image is evocative of the Hurley Flats and the Dutch barns that dotted the landscape.