Conrad Roeder (? - 1877) 
A.E. Mills House in Alton, Illinois, 1860 
oil on canvas, 21 3/4 by 32 3/4 inches
Illinois State Museum Collection Purchase 

A genre painting is a painting that shows people going about their everyday lives. They are surrounded by the things with which they live, play, and work, doing their everyday activities indoors or outdoors, and painted as if it all happened on the same day. 

This genre painting shows how the family of a gentleman farmer lived in mid-nineteenth-century Illinois. The artist stayed at the house while he designed and painted the picture. 

What games did children play? 
What farming activities are taking place? 

History of the painting 

This painting was found in an antiquarian bookshop in Los Angeles in 1971. The only title for it was View of an Unidentified Gentleman's County Home, Alton, Illinois. The bookseller contacted the Illinois State Museum to see if they were interested in buying an Illinois painting. The Museum's art curator wanted it because it helped fulfill the mission of the Museum to preserve Illinois' cultural heritage. 

After the Museum purchased the painting, the curator wrote to the Madison County Historical Society for help in identifying the house (Alton is in Madison County). After a few months, and many volunteers searching the area, a member of the historical society found a photograph of the property in an 1894 book, Art Work of Madison County, Part 6. The photograph identified the house as the Mills property, and a visit to the property confirmed it. The Mills' land had been subdivided in the twentieth century, and new streets were built that destroyed the great lawn in front of the house. 

After this successful detective work, the curator renamed the painting. Another piece of Illinois history and art was preserved for future generations.