Artwork
The Contest for the Bouquet: The Family of Robert Gordon in Their New York Dining-Room
The Contest for the Bouquet: The Family of Robert Gordon in Their New York Dining-Room is an oil painting by the Hudson River School artist Seymour Joseph Guy. It dates from 1866 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Accession no.
- 1992.128
- Credit line
- Purchase, Gift of William E. Dodge, by exchange, and Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1992
About this work
In the dining room of 7 West 33rd Street, three of Robert Gordon's children tussle over a floral corsage while their mother, Frances, sits nearby with the youngest in her lap. Seymour Joseph Guy painted the commission in 1866, recording the Manhattan home down to the Renaissance Revival sideboard and the American landscapes on the walls. The English-born artist, who settled in New York in 1854, blended portraiture with genre narrative to memorialize one of the Metropolitan Museum's founding trustees.
Subject & Meaning
The composition, a genre scene, represents a moment of familial leisure and playful competition, with the bouquet serving as the prize in a game among siblings.
The painting depicts the family of Robert Gordon in their New York dining room, engaged in a contest for a bouquet, as indicated by the title. The scene includes a woman, multiple children, and a range of domestic objects: a bouquet, antlers, a book, a pitcher, a straw hat, a feather, a bow, a bonnet, and items of clothing such as boots and shoes. The composition, a genre scene, represents a moment of familial leisure and playful competition, with the bouquet serving as the prize in a game among siblings.
The dining-room setting and period-accoutrements (e.g., carpet, antlers) evoke a middle-class Victorian home, emphasizing domesticity and family bonds. The work thus symbolizes the harmonious, yet lively, domestic life of 19th-century America, centering on childhood and sibling interaction.
History & Provenance
The painting is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it is classified in the American Wing. No inventory or accession number is specified in the provided sources, and no exhibition history is recorded.
Overview
Seymour Joseph Guy's 1866 oil painting, "The Contest for the Bouquet," depicts the family of Robert Gordon within their New York dining room. This work combines elements of a domestic genre scene with formal portraiture, a style known as a "conversation piece." It captures a playful moment among the Gordon children while their mother observes, set against a meticulously rendered backdrop of their fashionable home. The canvas showcases Guy's characteristic smooth finish and attention to detail.
Technique & Style
Seymour Joseph Guy was known for his precise depictions of children in genre scenes. In this work, he applied his signature technique, characterized by a smooth, glossy surface that meticulously conceals brushwork, creating an enamel-like finish. The artist skillfully blended this anecdotal approach with formal group portraiture, resulting in what contemporaries termed a "conversation piece", a work designed to invite contemplation of its narrative and detailed setting.
Context
Seymour Joseph Guy, an English immigrant who settled in New York in 1854, established his artistic career by specializing in detailed genre scenes, particularly those featuring children. This commission from Robert Gordon, a prominent financier and a key figure in the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reflects the era's taste for domestic narratives and meticulously rendered interiors. The painting also serves as a visual record of fashionable mid-19th-century New York decor.
Artist & collection
Studied in the Portraiture Across Time course