Editing Conversation piece (section)

==Development of the genre in England==
The 'conversation piece' started with families and friends depicted on a small scale in intimate settings. People were portrayed sharing common activities such as hunts, meals, or musical parties. Dogs and/or horses are also frequently featured. [[Arthur Devis (1712–1787)|Arthur Devis]] was a regional painter famous for his small conversation pieces, popular with the gentry of [[Cheshire]]. [[William Hogarth]] also worked in the genre, and parodied it in his print ''A Midnight Modern Conversation'', which depicted a group of men whose conversation has degenerated into drunken incoherence. [[Johann Zoffany]] specialized in complicated conversation pieces, and most portraits by [[George Stubbs]] take this form, with horses and carriages in the composition. [[Joshua Reynolds]] would on request produce conversation pieces in the [[Grand Manner]], and at his usual near-life scale.