The Sutler's Tent

The Sutler's Tent is a rare Civil War painting that documents Winslow Homer's travels with the Union Army as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly. The painting depicts a calm moment in camp as two cavalry soldiers relax beneath an awning of pine boughs outside a sutler's tent. One soldier stands pensively resting his chin in his hand; the other holds a wedge of cheese in one hand while devouring a pie held in the other. The positions of the soldiers' hands mirror one another, suggesting that some soldiers could afford to buy extra rations from sutlers--private merchants who traveled with the army--while others went hungry. Originally titled "Rations," the painting was among the works that Homer included in his first exhibition of oil paintings in 1863.