English: Richard Caton Woodville left his native Baltimore to study in Düsseldorf under the direction of Carl Ferdinand Sohn, a noted German genre painter. He remained abroad for most of his brief career, dying in London at the age of 30. While residing in Europe, he painted from memory a number of genre scenes recalling his youth in Baltimore. In this example executed in Paris, a lively wedding party has interrupted a justice of the peace in the course of his chicken dinner. This work illustrates the artist's remarkable powers of characterization and shows his meticulous attention to detail. The goat-hair chest, his trademark red spittoon, and the Franklin Almanac were common household items of the period.