A prominent Pennsylvania Impressionist, Daniel Garber was best known for his landscapes, but the artist also made a number of figure studies and interiors that brought him considerable recognition, South Room – Green Street was one such painting. One of several paintings Garber made that featured his family members in their home, South Room – Green Street is the largest and most ambitious of the series.
The painting depicts Garber's wife, Mary Franklin Garber, and daughter Tanis in the front parlor of their Philadelphia row house at 1819 Green Street. South Room – Green Street is a visual treatise on light, its effects on the objects and experiences of everyday life and, in turn, the perceptual responses these effects initiate. Specifically, Garber manipulates how light confounds substance, turning heavy curtains into stained glass, strands of hair into a golden aura, and the shadow of a wicker chair into a lacy design on the floor. Continuing this exploration of illusory modes of vision is Garber's inclusion of two mirrors in the painting, which not only provide another view of the girl's head but also reflect the light in intriguing ways. Critics of the time remarked on this: "the hair of the little girl standing near the window, with the light falling on it from three directions [is] cleverly managed with the aid of two mirrors, one in front and one at the side." The pleasant nature of Garber's domestic scene thus belies the complex issues of light, reflection, and vision that the artist so deftly manages in the painting.