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What game are the children playing in Winslow Homerās Snap the Whip?
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Winslow Homer
Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), oil on canvas by Winslow Homer, 1873ā76; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 61.5 Ć 97 cm.
In the 1872 oil painting Snap the Whip, the American artist Winslow Homer depicts a group of children playing the age-old game of the same name.1
In this game, the children form a line and hold hands, running in a way that creates a snapping motion at the end of the chain, similar to the cracking of a whip. The painting captures this activity outside a "little red schoolhouse," balancing the movement of the children with the stillness of the surrounding countryside.1