Portrait of the Maistre Sisters
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
43.2 × 31.2 cm (17 × 12 1/4 in.); Framed: 57.2 × 44.5 cm (22 1/2 × 17 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
76212
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this captivating double portrait, the fashionable Maistre sisters appear in complementary flowing muslin gowns and delicate gold jewelry. Ninette, in black, wraps her arm delicately yet protectively around her sister Suzette’s waist as both look out toward the viewer. French painter Antoine-Jean Gros created the visual sensation of a gentle breeze by animating the sitters’ gauze-like draperies and chestnut curls. Dense foliage, at times blending in with the curls, frames the pair and opens on...
Art Historical Context
Baron Antoine Jean Gros painted *Portrait of the Maistre Sisters* in 1796, a time of political upheaval following the French Revolution. As a leading French artist who studied under Jacques-Louis David, Gros often blended neoclassical precision with emerging romantic warmth. This small oil-on-canvas work captures two young women in an intimate format, its modest scale suggesting it was created for private appreciation rather than public display. Gros’s handling of oil paint allows for luminous skin tones and delicate fabric textures, inviting close viewing that rewards the museumgoer’s attention. The compact dimensions—roughly the size of a large book—emphasize personal connection over grandeur, a choice that reflects the era’s shifting ideas about family and individual identity. Today the painting resides in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection of European paintings, offering visitors a glimpse into late-eighteenth-century portraiture and the refined sensibility of Gros’s early career.
About the Artist
Baron Antoine Jean Gros · 1771–1835
Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (1771–1835) was born in Paris to the miniature painter Jean-Antoine Gros and the artist Pierrette-Madeleine-Cécile Durand. Displaying prodigious talent from childhood, he began drawing under his father's tutelage at age six. In 1785, at just fourteen, Gros entered the studio of Jacques-Louis David, the preeminent Neoclassical master, while attending classes at the Collège M...