3-002-724 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Sailor's Wedding, 1852. In this late painting, Woodville arranged a large group of figures in the light, airy space of an office of a justice of the peace. At the center, a strapping red-haired sailor holds the arm of his demure bride. A subsidiary drama unfolds in the doorway, where two African-American figures hold back a crying child and a grizzled old sailor looks in from the street. The details that set the scene, from the books and papers overflowing the horsehair trunk, to an almanac page pasted to the bookcase, to the red spittoon and glistening andirons, all "finished as with a microscope," add to its visual effect.