Recreation is a scene of intense physical activity, a Jerome Thompson portrait of a New England crowd who have hastily escaped the city.

Indeed at the time, picnicking was seen as one of the most healthful of outings, involving the twin benefits of very mild exertion and fresh, unsmoggy air. Picnics were so popular in fact, that the word itself appeared in the title of over 58 American paintings between 1830 and 1880.

The exhausted subjects of Thompson’s painting can barely stand from their intense picnicking, and most rest against rocks and trees... except for one. The gallant and beautifully behatted Miss Scarlet watches restlessly as her friend Miss Pumpkin-Orange wanders off with a mysterious gentleman. The couple seem to be taking advantage of the relaxed Victorian social codes of the picnic outing.

Among the picnickers, autumnal garb and reddening cheeks attest to their exhaustion and the looming onset of October. The leftwardly woman in red looks distinctly rosy-faced, most likely from embarrassment at the immodesty of her companion’s mustache, or his too-kind compliments on her snooded and well-kempt hairstyle. As she sips her pumpkin spice latte from a china teacup, she's no doubt thinking up a snappy response to the mustachioed companion’s appallingly conservative comment on the recent Dred Scott case.

The other women sneer and snore at the abominable flautist’s never-ending trills and whistles, hoping they can return to the city soon. Lucky for the purple-bloused Madame Sneer, she’s able to sneak an extra cup of wine from the ewer, and at this point finds the flute-playing more amusing than intolerable.