In an article entitled "Full of Home, Love and Simplicity," Elizabeth Johns discusses women's role in genre painting both as artist and subject. In terms of subject, Johns addresses several patterns in the female role. The first being that women are absent in many historically important genre paintings. Likewise, when women are present they play a "subsidiary" role, as in the painting "Bargaining for a Horse" by William Sydney Mount. Mount's painting depicts two men conversing next to a horse in the foreground while the only woman in the painting is placed in the far background, barely noticeable. Furthermore, Johns feels that in some cases images of women in genre paintings are even critical. Using a second Mount painting titled "Cider Making," Johns argues that the female in line for cider is

Spencer's later works, "Shake Hands?" (1854) and "Kiss Me and You'll Kiss the 'Lasses," (1856) showed women's self-sufficiency, as well as a sexual indication. The Cosmopolitan Art Association gave them both praise, but the The Crayon, another art journal, had a negative reaction. Lubin, himself, enjoyed both works. After comparing Spencer's domestic women with that of Nicolas Maes and Thomas Sully he concluded that their subjects did not "jump out at you" like Spencer's. Comparably, Catherine Beecher, author of Treatise on Domestic Economy, stressed the difficulties in managing a household and praised Spencer's portrayals of women.

Besides women, Spencer painted many male subjects as central focuses, as well as including them in multiple genre scenes. However, her paintings of domestic men rely on what Lubin referred to as "situation comedy." This is the case in Spencer's painting entitled "The Young Husband: First Marketing," (1854) and "Fi! Fo! Fum!," (1858). John Demos, author of Past, Present and Personal: The Family and the Life Course in American History believes situation comedy arose historically due to the fathers increased absence from the family circle. "Young Husband" related to the times historically, because the economy was very unstable and a lot of men were out of work. However, the painting was not as successful as Spencer's earlier works. The Crayon criticized the painting for the "enormous disproportion of the man's head." Lubin further indicates that all of her paintings of men (or those that include men) makes us wonder about Spencer's attitude toward her "chronically unemplo!

seemingly "forced to wait her turn."

Spencer's painting "Shake Hands?" was her first immediate success bringing praise from the Art Historical Journal for the Cosmopolitan Art Association. "Shake Hands?" depicted a woman baking while expressing a ritual of "male equality." Nonetheless, Spencer soon found herself under more criticism when she displayed a painting entitled "The Young Husband: First Marketing." Correspondent J.K.L. of the National Academy of Design claimed the head of the central figure in the painting was much too large.

Lilly Martin Spencer's art expressed "desires to laugh and to please." Lubin concluded that her art was "deeply marked by pressures, financial or otherwise, inextricably related to the artist's uncertain embrace of domesticity and its implacable codes of maternal self sacrifice." It has also been said that her art may have been a form of dialogue between her and her mother. Apparently the two never saw eachother again after she moved to New York in 1849. Although Spencer's

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