Homer experimented with a number of fine art reproductive processes during his career. Many connoisseurs of Homer’s era believed that wood engraving produced the best reproductions of fine art, truer to the original than any photographic image. Photogravure and heliotype processes transfer a photographic image of a work to a metal plate from which multiple copies of the image are produced. In chromolithography, oil-based color inks are applied mechanically in layers to simulate either oil or watercolor painting. These reproductions were intended as works of art that could be framed and proudly displayed in a middle-class home.