Snap the Whip

Snap the Whip is a 1872 oil painting by Winslow Homer. It depicts a group of children playing a game in a field in front of an old red schoolhouse. With more of America's population moving to cities, this portrait depicts the simplicity of rural agrarian life that Americans began to leave behind in the post-Civil war era.

Homer spent several summers in New York's Hudson Valley, and is said to have been inspired to paint this scene by local boys playing at the Hurley schoolhouse.