| 7. Genre Painting and Common Life (6635 words) |
 | An important offshoot of the Dutch tradition was the conversation piece, a mixture of genre and portrait in which a group friends or relatives is depicted in an intimate and informal setting (Staring, De Hollanders Thuis). |
| The essential elements of the conversation piece are all present in George Eliot's description of the Garth family at the beginning of chapter 57 of Middlemarch. |
| Many problem pictures are based on the conventions of the conversation piece, since the affirmation of family prosperity and harmony can easily be inverted to underline problems of poverty and marital discord. |
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