Editing Conversation piece

{{Short description|Painting genre}}
{{Other uses|Conversation Piece (disambiguation)}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2014}}
[[File:Hogarth - The Jones Family Conversation Piece, 1730, NMW A 3978.jpg|thumb|276px|''The Jones Family Conversation Piece'', by [[William Hogarth]], 1730.]]
A '''conversation piece''' refers to a group [[portrait]] in a domestic or landscape setting depicting persons chatting or otherwise socializing with each other.<ref name=rkd>[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/80822 Conversatiestuk] at the [[Netherlands Institute for Art History]]</ref>  The persons depicted may be members of a family as well as friends, members of a society or hunt, or some other grouping who are shown sharing common activities such as hunts, meals, or musical parties.<ref>[http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/glossary/conversation-piece Glossary: Conversation Piece.] The National Gallery. Retrieved 20 March 2022.</ref><ref name=nga>[https://www.nga.gov/global-site-search-page.html?searchterm=British+Conversation+Pieces+and+Portraits+of+the+1700s British Conversation Pieces and Portraits of the 1700s] at The National Gallery. Retrieved 20 March 2022.</ref> It was an especially popular genre in 18th-century England, beginning from the 1720s, largely due to the influence of [[William Hogarth]]. Similar paintings can also be found in other periods and outside of England.<ref name=ox>[https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T019255 D'Oench, Ellen G. "Conversation piece"]. Grove Art Online. Retrieved 20 March 2022.</ref> The setting of various figures "conversing" in an intimate setting appears to call for small-scale paintings, but some artists treated this subject manner in the [[Grand Manner]], with almost life-size figures.<ref name=nga/>

==Term and origins==
[[File:Johan Joseph Zoffany - David Garrick and Mary Bradshaw in David Garrick's "The Farmer's Return" - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|276px|''David Garrick and Mary Bradshaw in David Garrick's "The Farmer's Return"'' by [[Johann Zoffany]], 1762.]]
The term derives from the Latin word 'conversatio' and was related to the French 'conversation', the Italian 'conversazione' and the Flemish/Dutch 'conversatie'. In the 17th century Habsburg Netherlands 'conversatie' described paintings of informal groups.<ref name=pat>Chin-Jung Chen, 'From genre to portrait: The etymology of the 'conversation piece' ', The British Art Journal Vol. 13, No. 2 (Autumn 2012), pp. 82-85</ref> In 1629 Rubens referred to a group of women as a 'conversatie van jouffrouwen' ('conversation of ladies', also known as ''conversatie à la mode'' and ''The Garden of Love'' (Prado)).<ref name=ox/>  In 1670s Antwerp the low-life genre scenes of [[Adriaen Brouwer]] and [[Joos van Craesbeeck]] as well as the more elegant dance and social gatherings by [[Hieronymus Janssens]] and [[Christoffel Jacobsz van der Laemen]] were referred to as 'conversaties' and 'conversations'.  In England the term 'conversation' or 'conversation piece' was first used at the end of the 17th century to describe unpretentious narrative or anecdotal pictures in the Flemish/Dutch style. Somewhat later it was also used for [[Antoine Watteau]]'s [[Fête galante|''fêtes galantes'']].  Only in 1730 it was used in England for the type of small-scale intimate portrait paintings painted by British painters such as [[Gawen Hamilton]].<ref name=pat/>

The conversation piece's primary characteristic of representing a private interaction were already present in 15th-century paintings such as [[Jan van Eyck]]'s ''[[Arnolfini Portrait]]'' (1434) and [[Andrea Mantegna]]'s ''Lodovico Gonzaga with his Family'' (1471).  The genre developed from 17th century portraiture in the [[Low Countries]].<ref>[[William Gaunt (art historian)|Gaunt, William]]. (1964) ''A concise history of English painting''. London: [[Thames and Hudson]], p. 58. {{ISBN|0500200165}}</ref>  The compositions of merrymaking companies (''vrolijk gezelschap'') and garden parties (''buitenpartij'') painted by artists such as [[Dirck Hals]], [[David Vinckbooms]], [[Adriaen van de Venne]] and [[Willem Buytewech]] were an important influence on the genre.  In addition, representations of elegant companies and balls by [[Hieronymus Janssens]] and the works of [[Peter Paul Rubens]], in particular his ''[[The Garden of Love (Rubens)|Garden of Love]]'' ([[Prado Museum]]), gave an impetus and direction to the development of the genre.  In this last work, Rubens showed how a garden could be used as a setting for amorous dalliance and courtship.<ref>Mary Tavener, ''Nicolas Lancret: Dance Before a Fountain'', Holmes Getty Publications, p. 13-14</ref>  More informal forms of portraiture developed showing the sitters in an intimate environment evoking new social ideals of friendship and marriage.  Flemish and Dutch painters active in the mid 17th century started to paint families and friends at home in small-scale paintings such as [[David Teniers the Younger]], [[Gonzales Coques]], [[Gerard ter Borch]], [[Gabriel Metsu]], [[Caspar Netscher]] and [[Jacob Ochtervelt]].<ref name=ox/>
[[File:Arthus Devis Thomas Cave Family 1749.jpg|thumb|278px|''Family Group in a Garden'' by [[Arthur Devis]], 1749.]]

==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.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book|last=Sitwell|first=Sacheverell|author-link=Sacheverell Sitwell|url=https://archive.org/details/conversationpiec00sitw/|title=Conversation Pieces|publisher=B. T. Batsford|year=1936|location=London|oclc=1028563978|url-access=registration|via=the Internet Archive}}
*{{Cite book|last=Williamson|first=George Charles|url=https://archive.org/details/englishconversat0000unse/|title=English Conversation Pictures of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries|publisher=Hacker Art Books|year=1975|isbn=0-87817-157-6|location=New York|oclc=679375882|orig-year=1931|url-access=registration|via=the Internet Archive}}
* [[Mario Praz]], ''Conversation Pieces: A Survey of the Informal Group Portrait in Europe and America'' (University Park and London: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999)

==External links==
{{Commons-inline|Category:Conversation pieces|Conversation pieces}}

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[[Category:Portrait art]]
[[Category:Iconography]]
[[Category:English art]]