Formal Analysis Of 'The Cotton Pickers'

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Known as the Reconstruction Era, the United States endured a financial revolution noticeable by; the growth of the industrial wealth, development of big business, large scale agronomy, and the upsurge of national labor unions and industrial struggle. With all this industrial change taking place around the country, the South was still in turmoil. The confusion in the South, arose from the abolition of slavery in 1865. Many former slaves faced an uncertainty in regards to their future in this country. Going from being completely dependent on their owners to being in total control of their own decisions. Many of them had no other choice but to continue to work in the same positions they did before they were free and continued to suffer mistreatment.
Formal Analysis
Color Palette
Looking at the painting it is difficult not to notice how limited the color palette Homer used for this painting with the use of a few colors, if it was not for the
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In The Cotton Pickers, Winslow Homer is depicting two former slaves picking cotton in a field. It is important to put this painting into historical contexts because it was painted after the abolition of slavery in 1865 and here we have two women doing the same job they did before they were free. The best way to describe the painting is as measured freedom because we have two former slaves who were granted their freedom, yet they are unable to escape their past. The wall text that accompanied the piece at LACMA described them as heroic, but to me they represent acceptance. They are accepting of the reality of their lives, even though they were given their freedom these two women would not be able to escape injustice and prejudice in their lifetime. In addition, by the central figure gazing off into the unknown suggest hope for future generations, that they will have a better quality of

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