Henry Cross
Untitled (Couple in Carriage), 1884 
oil on canvas, 23 by 39 inches
Illinois State Museum collection
Illinois State Museum Society purchase

The scene of this couple, wearing their dressy clothes and riding swiftly in their buggy, is an example of genre painting. People who could afford it hired painters to visit them at home and paint them in their surroundings. The paintings contained detailed information about the subjects' lives, social status, wealth, family, and habits.

What information can you infer about the couple from the details of this painting?

The artist painted the horse and carriage using techniques that made it look like they were traveling fast. How did the artist create this illusion? 

Henry Cross (1837 - 1918), of Flemingville, New York, worked with a traveling circus in his youth. When he was sixteen he went to France to study painting for two years. On returning to the United States, he joined another circus to see the country. He became known for painting portraits of Native Americans that he saw on his journeys. In 1860 he settled in Chicago, Illinois, where he painted scenes of nineteenth-century life.