A Visit from the Old Mistress is an 1876 painting by American artist, Winslow Homer. It was one of several works that Homer created during a mid-1870s visit to Virginia, where he had served as a war correspondent during the Civil War.[1] Scholars have noted that the painting's composition is taken from Homer's earlier painting Prisoners from the Front, which depicts a group of captive Confederate soldiers defiantly regarding a Union officer.[2] It, along with Homer's other paintings of black southern life from this period, has been praised as an "invaluable record of an important segment of life in Virginia during the Reconstruction."[1]

External video
Podcast: The Civil War and American Art, Episode 5, Smithsonian American Art Museum[3]

A Visit from the Old Mistress
Artist	Winslow Homer
Year	1876 (1876)
Medium	Oil on canvas
Condition	On display
Location	Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC

References