Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class, and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
This is a hand colored print; outdoor scene of a hunter standing in foliage on shore with dog. A maiden stands in a gondola-like vessel on a lake. The figures are dressed in elaborate, romantic costumes. This print is an illustration for the poem by Sir Walter Scott. An excerpt from the poem "Lady of the Lake" is beneath the title of the print.
The print was produced by the lithographic firm of Kelloggs & Comstock, which was the 1848-1850 partnership of Elijah and Edmund Kellogg with John Chenevard Comstock.
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