Arcadópolis
My Poor Sweet Little Angelica
What you see
A baby lies propped on a large pillow, head to the right and face turned upward. Its eyes are wide open, its lips parted, and its little hands clasped on its chest. A ruffled gown wraps the body and fades, toward the left, into folds of cloth and cushions.
The face and hands are softly and carefully shaded; the rest is handled in light strokes that fade out to the left, as if left unfinished. The cream paper has brown stains and worn edges. Look for the glint in the baby's eyes and the small tear on the left edge.
About Lilly Martin Spencer
Lilly Martin Spencer was born in England in 1822, grew up on a farm in Ohio and became one of the most popular and widely reproduced women painters in mid-nineteenth-century America. Her lively, often humorous scenes of family life, which sometimes poked fun at husbands, were sold widely as lithographs. Unusually for her time, she was the family breadwinner while her husband ran the household, and she kept painting until her death at nearly eighty.
More by Lilly Martin Spencer
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