Raspberries

Lilly Martin Spencer managed a career as a well-respected painter at a time when women rarely rose to the level of professional artist. Her popular imagery of home and family garnered a wide audience when her paintings were reproduced as inexpensive prints. She was the primary breadwinner in her family, with her husband taking care of their thirteen children; and although they struggled financially for years, she remained an active painter through the end of her life. In 1858, the Spencers moved to rural New Jersey, which prompted her to try still-life painting of the fruits and plants surrounding her there.