Though the composition of Peeling Onion is easily recognizing as portraits, the meticulous detail and the scenic moment the painter poke fun at suggest the subject operates in and against sentimental culture, which gains her popularity in 1850s.

[3] Yet from her pensive facial expression and hesitating gesture, the painting suggest a deeper sorrow of female's household labor, as well as an interrogation about her identity in mid-nineteenth century when the patriarchal ideology of "separate sphere" is dominant.

[5] The still life in the front presents to the viewer with a sharp glimpse of naturalism, and the trompe l'oeil effect by the protruding spoon indicate painter's study of seventeenth-century Dutch art.

By introducing dichotomies, such as one eye with tears and the other cover by the hand holding a knife, the demure dress in contrast to the muscular forearms, she allows her work for multiple and contradictory messages.

By depicting her crying while fulfilling the domestic work, it not only revealed the growth in the awareness of female equality in country's public and professional life, but also how it presents as a challenge to their traditional role in family.

[5] Therefore, Lilly Martin Spencer pivot her theme closely with domestic affairs, grounded it with the insight and observation from an insider's perspective, and depicted it with meticulous but sentimental details only a female artist could achieve.