The Cool Retreat
The Cool Retreat
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- 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 extremely risqué colored print is of a girl seated on a bench in a garden. She is fanning herself with her large straw hat. One leg is crossed with her ankle on her knee, causing her skirt to be pulled up exposing her pantaloons. The girl’s blouse is open down the front.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- lithograph
- Object Type
- Lithograph
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- unknown
- place made
- World
- Physical Description
- hand-colored (image production method/technique)
- ink (overall material)
- paper (overall material)
- Measurements
- image: 12 in x 8 in; 30.48 cm x 20.32 cm
- overall: 17 in x 13 in; 43.18 cm x 33.02 cm
- ID Number
- DL.60.2283
- catalog number
- 60.2283
- accession number
- 228146
- Credit Line
- Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
- subject
- Courtship, love
- Flowers
- See more items in
- Cultural and Community Life: Domestic Life
- Clothing & Accessories
- Domestic Furnishings
- Art
- Peters Prints
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
