The Cool Retreat
date: label: date made
content: n.d.
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: World
topic: label: Subject
content: Courtship, love
label: Subject
content: Flowers
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Art
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content: Peters Prints
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2283
label: catalog number
content: 60.2283
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hand-colored (image production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 12 in x 8 in; 30.48 cm x 20.32 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 17 in x 13 in; 43.18 cm x 33.02 cm