Thy Word is a Lamp unto My Feet and a Light unto My Path, the title of which is derived from Psalm 119, depicts an elderly couple whom Eastman Johnson knew from summer visits to Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Posed on either side of their home's large hearth, the husband, studying the family Bible, and wife, quietly communing with God, represent paragons of Christian virtue and a simpler, bygone era.
In the early 1850s, Johnson studied art in Europe, where 17th-century Dutch painters of everyday life influenced him. His talent earned him the nickname the American Rembrandt. Returning to the United States in 1855, Johnson specialized in images of rural life, which enjoyed wide acclaim in an increasingly industrialized America.
