Three Chinese Men Playing Dominoes in a Baxter Street Club-House, New York City

About this artwork

Research in Progress

Art Historical Context

Winslow Homer, one of America’s most celebrated 19th-century artists, created this scene around 1874 during a period when he frequently turned his attention to everyday urban life. Best known for his Civil War illustrations and later marine paintings, Homer here captures three Chinese men absorbed in a game of dominoes inside a modest club-house on Baxter Street in lower Manhattan. The work reflects the growing presence of Chinese immigrants in New York’s Five Points neighborhood at a time of expanding immigration and shifting social dynamics. Though listed simply as “figures,” the composition likely belongs to Homer’s early graphic work, possibly a drawing or print intended for magazine reproduction. Its quiet focus on leisure among an immigrant community offers a rare glimpse into a world often overlooked by mainstream artists of the era. Today housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the piece invites viewers to consider how Homer used ordinary moments to document the diversity and complexity of post-Civil War America.