One of the leading American woman artists in the 1850s and 1860s, Lilly Martin Spencer immigrated to America in 1830 with her liberal-minded French parents, who hoped to establish a utopian community, a vision that never materialized. Educated at home in Marietta, Ohio, Lilly began painting in her teens, and had her first exhibition, held in a church in 1861. Its success prompted her family to send her to Cincinnati for formal study. There, she met Nicholas Longworth, who made his renowned art collection available to her, and worked briefly with the portraitists James Beard and John Insco Williams. In 1844 she married the tailor Benjamin Rush Spencer, and the following year gave birth to the first of their thirteen children, seven of whom survived infancy. The couple moved to New York City in 1848 to further Lilly's career, and Benjamin left the sewing trade to become his wife's business manager and assistant.

Once settled, Spencer painted by day and attended classes at the National Academy of Design at night. During that time, she began her steady output of domestic scenes, using family members and servants as models. Her style and choice of subject was probably influenced by the German genre paintings on view at the popular Dusseldorf Gallery in New York, which she often visited. Spencer's images, based on humorous incidents in her own home life, found an eager and appreciative audience, and her work soon equaled in price and popularity the genre paintings of George Caleb Bingham.

In 1858 Spencer moved her family to Newark, New Jersey, to a house rented from her patron Marcus L. Ward, and turned her attention to portraiture. Her interest in realistic detail and her vibrant sense of color are evident in The Pierson Children, painted around 1858-1860. The elaborate brushwork, colorful dress, and sumptuous setting suggest that it was an important commission. According to family history, it represents the children of A. Romeyn Pierson, who is said to have served as America's first Ambassador to Argentina in 1825, though his name does not appear in State Department records. A descendent of an old and prominent Newark family, he may have been a friend of Marcus Ward, who commissioned likenesses of his wife and children during the same period. After many years of sketching her own youngsters, the artist had an appealing talent for recording the expressions and gestures of youth, and her child portraits were widely admired. The Pierson portrait is similar in style to The Children of Marcus L. Ward (1858-1860; Newark Museum), regarded as Spencer's most successful attempt at portraiture, and Nicholas Longworth Ward (1858-1860; Newark Museum), the posthumous portrait of one of his eight children. NRS

Biography courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/charleston

By 1858 Lilly Martin Spencer was not only the best - known artist in New Jersey in the nineteenth century but also the foremost woman painter of her day in America. Born in Ohio, she had enjoyed the patronage of Cincinnati's Nicholas Longworth before moving to New York City in 1849. By then she had developed the pictorial formula for her cheerful, homey scenes - based on her own domestic life with her husband, Benjamin Spencer, and their numerous progeny - for which she became famous.

Memberships:
National Academy of Design

Public Collections:
National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.
Newark Museum, New Jersey

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton

Lilly M. Spencer emigrated to the U.S. from England with her family in 1830. She was an artistic prodigy in her teen years and was educated at home. In 1841 she held an exhibition of her work which drew the attention of a wealthy patron in Cincinnati but ultimately turned down his offer to send her to Europe for further study. Spencers early work consisted mostly of allegorical and Shakespearian subjects. In 1848 Spencer moved to New York City hoping to find a larger audience. She gained financial success with her sentimental domestic genre paintings. Spencer was able to support her family just by the sale of her work with her husband managing domestic responsibilities and the business side of her work. Her seven children often appear in her paintings often with pets. Spencer used bright colors, clear drawing and dramatic light to enhance her paintings. She painted until her death, producing up to 500 works, many of which were reproduced as popular engravings and lithographs. Spencer died in 1902.

Biography courtesy of The Caldwell Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/caldwell