The Canary

William McGregor Paxton was a member of the Boston School, a group of academically trained painters who worked in Massachusetts and New England during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The subject, composition, and lighting of this painting reflect Paxton's interest in the work of seventeenth-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. The vase and pattern of the woman's robe demonstrate the popularity of East Asian imports in affluent American households of the time. Here, Paxton uses the language of Japonisme to depict the cloistered female subject, echoed by the canary in its gilded cage.