Two Girls

Samuel Baumeister portrayed two girls from a noble family. The resemblance in their faces, clothing and jewellery suggests that they are sisters. Both girls wear fashionable gowns with large necklines, rich lace trimmings at their wide sleeves and narrow waists, which differ only in their colour. The background is simple; only the blue colour on the right-hand side, which possibly indicates the back of a chair, takes up the shade of the elder sister’s gown. The portrait clearly focuses on the two girls; the painter apparently wanted to represent their relationship by elements that both relate and contrast with each other.
The sisters are placed almost symmetrically within the picture. They look at the observer while their bodies are slightly turned towards each other. Their resemblance is amazing. Only their different hairstyles and adornments emphasize the elder sister’s longer face and the younger sister’s round one. The latter’s hair ribbons correspond to the colour of her elder sister’s gown whereas the rose in the elder girl’s hand echoes the colour of her younger sister’s gown. Their closeness is also expressed by the position of their hands: the elder girl has caringly laid her arm around her sister’s shoulder, who stretches out her hands towards her solicitous sibling as if she wants to take her right hand. Baumeister’s painting style is characterised by an extremely fine dotting which he used for sophisticated reproduction not only of the skin of his sitters’ faces and décolletés, but also the details of their clothing.
Although Baumeister focused especially on status symbols such as the girls’ clothing, jewellery and headgear, which from today’s point of view makes them seem a little doll-like, he created a portrait whose expression of fidelity and closeness that still delights the contemporary observer.
J. S. O.