Jersey Meadows at Sunset

Martin Johnson Heade began painting Jersey Meadows at Sunset shortly after the end of the Civil War. In it, a meandering stream and a series of haystacks stretch across low, flat marshes, and a lone man at right takes in a moment of rest. The war haunts this seemingly placid landscape: A broken haycart near the center of the foreground calls to mind an artillery mount for a small field cannon, while the rays of the setting sun, reaching upward from the horizon, conjure memories of explosions on a distant battlefield.