Celebrated in his day for painting “homely incidents of everyday life,” John George Brown turned to depicting elderly subjects in the 1870s and 1880s, when he completed this painting of a town deacon doting on a wistful-looking woman. The drop-front secretary behind her with closed books and a wool hat resting on top suggests the absence of a longtime companion, and the deacon’s benevolent smile communicates his consolation (or flirtation, as their overlapping arms hint at courtship). Accustomed to cooking for more than one, the woman cores and peels apples for a pie or compote, reflexively performing her labor in the face of grief.