Conversation Piece By Lily Martin Spencer

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Lily Martin Spencer was a female American genre painter in antebellum period, a time period in the United States before the civil war and after the War of 1812. This paper is on the analysis of Conversation Piece, an oil painting by Lilly Martin Spencer in 1851-52. The medium of the piece is oil on canvas and is now displayed in Gallery 758 of Metropolitan Museum of Art. Conversation Piece illustrates the sentimental culture in the United States by depicting the image of a middle-class domestic life. With elements of sentimentalism, the audiences are able to perceive the emotions within a pleasant family render by the painting. At the first glance of Conversation Piece, the image of a family of three relaxing near the dining table is shown. …show more content…

The dining room in the scene is decorated with the wallpaper screen, wooden floor, fireplace, Carcel lamp and sculpture. There is also a doll falls in the lower right corner. The doll that falls on the lower right corner may demonstrate the love of the parents to the baby; the buying of toys is equivalent to the showing of love, a sentimental element in a household. Moreover, the father wears a business-suit that is engraved with a gold chain and also wears a gold ring with red diamonds on his right pinky. The mothers wears a silk yellow-white hoop dress with pearl earrings. The foot of the mother is placed on a well-decorated red foot stool. These accesories suggest the wealth and affluence of the …show more content…

In the painting, Spencer depicts a domestic scene with warm atmosphere by using the color of red. The wallpaper screen, tablecloth, foot stool, and tassel are all painted in red color. By using red for the background of the painting, a sense of peace, vitality and power are emerged. In term of composition, the painting is small in composition with only a portion of the dining room shown, which give a sense of coziness. The feeling of harmony and coziness in the domestic household is in contrast with the cold atmosphere at work place outside the household. It is one reason why the sentimental arts became popular in American society during antebellum

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