Winslow Homer and Hugh Newell focused on the theme of agricultural labor in these two paintings. In Homer’s Waiting an Answer, the young farmer pauses his work to gaze steadily at the young woman before him. Newell’s Harvest Scene depicts two figures harvesting corn in the bright sunshine. Placing their subjects in rural settings, both Homer and Newell drew on the affinity of wealthy, white, urban collectors for idealized scenes set in nature. Works such as these offered an escape from the economic upheavals and social changes in the years following the American Civil War (1861–1865). Yet the youthful demeanor of the figures in both paintings allude to a missing generation of older farmers who did not return from battle.