One of America's greatest painters. In Snap The Whip, nine boys are playing this old school game where the purpose is to hang on to the line. We see two boys on the left of the painting as they are thrown from the "whip". In the background we see a red school house and behind it the mountains of the New England region. On the far left, in a diminished state, two girls are playing.
Winslow Homer portrayed different themes in his work, in Snap the Whip, the theme of transition is emphasized. The connected line of boys represent childhood and they try to hold on to that concept, both physically and symbolically; and as they are whipped out they enter the world of adulthood filled with uncertainty, danger, (represented by the jagged rocks on the grass) and women (the two girls in the distant background).
