The first scene of the group painting (engagement): The old and sick fat earl agreed to marry a merchant's daughter for his son by signing a property agreement. This painting depicts a businessman taking his daughter to a noble's house to make an engagement: on the day of the engagement ceremony, the middleman took out a property mortgage for the count to sign, and the businessman held a property agreement confirming Viscount Squafield and his wife. The sick declining aristocrat proudly pointed to the genealogy to declare his aristocratic status, and the family took the mortgage form for the proud count to sign; A lawyer stood at the window, his back to the audience, looking helplessly out of the window; The businessman in the red coat looked at the count timidly, for fear that he would not reach the heights. A group of characters on the left side of the picture are very interesting: the rich lady is sad and dissatisfied with her future husband, playing with a handkerchief and an engagement ring, while the aristocratic children around her are old and uneasy because of their dissolute life, trying to refresh themselves with snuff, while the fat best man takes the opportunity to sweet talk and express concern. With sharp artistic language, the painter reproduces the ugly face of collusion between the bourgeoisie and the old aristocracy through marriage. The characteristics of an era are concentrated in this small picture. There are two male and female dogs in the lower left corner of the picture, which indicates the nature and prospect of this marriage transaction.
In the second picture, that is, the first picture, the businessman and the earl use their children's bodies to consolidate the merged business. This scene is displayed in a living room of the newly married couple. The clock on the side of the mantelpiece tells the time is after one o'clock in the afternoon. The chairs in the living room were tilted, cards and music were scattered all over the floor, and two violins were thrown on the ground nearby, indicating that a dance was held in this living room last night, and it didn't disperse until dawn, and everything had not been sorted out. The partners slept until the afternoon. The heroine sat on the small coffee table opposite the groom, wearing a short dressing gown and nightcap, stretched out her arms, yawned and squinted at her husband. But the count's son collapsed in a chair like a shriveled skin. The velvet coat and vest were open, the wig hung casually behind the head, the ribbon had fallen off, and a sword fell to the ground because the button was broken. He wore his hat askew and put his hands in his pockets. In his left hand pocket, a woman's undershirt was exposed, which caused the pug to get up and keep smelling. The groom's fatigue shows that he has just gone out for one night.
The candle in the living room is still burning, but it has burned very low and is about to burn out. In another suite, a servant is supporting a chair. A housekeeper-like figure appeared on the left. He seems to have tried several times to wake up the newlyweds in strange strange bedfellows, but failed to do so. He had to cock his nose and gesticulate out of the living room with a stack of expired promissory notes in his hand. In his left pocket, there is a book called "Turn over a New leaf", which is an allegorical hint.
Modern Marriage has six paintings: engagement, fashionable marriage, seeking medical treatment, concert, duel and suicide. With a continuous storyline, it tells the whole story that a nobleman's child and a nouveau riche's daughter are engaged and they have no love at all. Shortly after the marriage, the man went out to look for flowers, and the woman was extravagant and hooked up with lawyers all day. In a duel, the lawyer killed the noble's child, and his wife was tortured by conscience and committed suicide by taking poison.