Two Women in Black Dresses: A Realistic Scene

More about Two Women in Black Dresses: A Realistic Scene

A painting depicts two women indoors, each wearing a similar long black puffed-sleeve dress with white cuffs and a white flat collar, against a dark gray wall, in the style of realism. The woman on the left sits in a red wooden armchair, with a plain dark gray wall behind her. Her dark hair is parted in the middle and pulled back. She looks directly at the viewer with a neutral expression, her cheeks flushed. Her hands are busy with an embroidery hoop, holding blue and green thread, with a thimble visible next to the blue spool. The embroidery hoop has a golden ornate frame and is supported by two wooden pegs, extending from the bottom. Fine white threads hang from the hoop.

The woman on the right is shown in profile, looking down at a book she holds in both hands. Her hair is also dark and pulled back in a bun. She sits on a simpler, possibly red, chair, mostly obscured by her dress. In the background, two framed paintings of unspecified subjects are visible on the dark wall; the frame near the left woman is golden, and the frame near the right woman is dark brown. The floor is a horizontal wooden panel. The lighting is soft and even.