Dorothea and Francesca
Cecilia Beaux
1898
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
203.5 × 116.8 cm (80 1/8 × 46 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
80499
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Cecilia Beaux explored the line between portraiture and figure painting in Dorothea and Francesca, which focuses less on the individuality of the sitters and more on their coordinated movements. The composition features two children of Beaux’s friends Helena de Kay and Richard Watson Gilder, a prominent couple in New York’s cultural scene. A double portrait of the daughters engaged in a dancing lesson, the work visually evokes the transition from girlhood to adolescence. A female artist competin...