Genre and Still Life Painting

John George Brown (1831–1913)
Picnic Party in the Woods, 1872
Devoting his long and productive career to depictions of American children in both rural and urban environments, the British-born artist John George Brown made paintings replete with narrative and moral content. In Picnic Party in the Woods, several figures representing various ages are engaged in summertime leisure activities, a device Brown presents as an analogy of human life. Shown as in a theater production, they evoke the Shakespearian conceit of the world as a stage and its inhabitants advancing through the “seven ages” of man. At the center, a group illuminated by full sunshine is playing the popular Victorian game Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grows. Influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, who advocated exacting fidelity in representations of nature, Brown’s detailed image of happy children also encourages a spirit of regeneration and unity following the American Civil War (1861–65).
Learn more about this painting on the Terra Foundation website.
Genre and Still Life Painting

Eastman Johnson (1824–1906)
Fiddling His Way, c. 1866

Lilly Martin Spencer (1822–1902)
The Home of the Red, White, and Blue, c. 1867–68

William Sidney Mount (1807–1868)
Fruit Piece: Apples on Tin Cups, 1864

Winslow Homer (1836–1910)
Apple Picking, 1878

William Sidney Mount (1807–1868)
The Trap Sprung, 1844

Robert Spear Dunning (1829–1905)
Harvest of Cherries, 1866

Samuel Colman, Jr. (1832–1920)
Ships Unloading, New York, 1868

John George Brown (1831–1913)
Picnic Party in the Woods, 1872

Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904)
Still Life with Apple Blossoms in a Nautilus Shell, 1870

Thomas Waterman Wood (1783–1872)
The Yankee Pedlar, 1872

George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879)
The Jolly Flatboatmen, 1877–78

John Haberle (1853–1933)
One Dollar Bill, 1890

Winslow Homer (1836–1910)
The Whittling Boy, 1873

John Frederick Peto (1854–1907)
Old Time Letter Rack, 1894