The two sisters
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | Musée du Louvre, Paris, France |
| Location History: | The painting was made in 1843, at an important point in Chassériau’s artistic development. He had been trained under Ingres, whose emphasis on drawing, contour and classical structure strongly shaped his early work. At the same time, Chassériau was increasingly attracted to the colour and emotional intensity of Romantic painting, particularly the work of Delacroix. The Metropolitan Museum describes his mature style as a fusion of Ingres’s linear precision and Delacroix’s painterly Romanticism. |
The Two Sisters can be regarded as part of Chassriau's development as a young artist attempting to synthesize the rigorous drawing tradition established by Ingres with the more luxuriant use of colour and emotion found in Romanticism. Painted in 1843, the portrait depicts his own sisters, Marie-Antoinette-Adle and Genevive (Aline), in a deeply personal work of portraiture. What interests me here is how Chassriau almost makes them a pair of counterparts. The two sisters are all dressed the same with similar hairstyles, They are both seen frontally; their bodies facing each other, mirroring each other. Their hands, joined together, interlocked, bringing the women physically close – but not their faces. For this painting appears to do much more than show two pretty women. The tone is also carefully restrained. Unlike a Romantic tableau a la theatre, nothing theatrical is in evidence: the two sisters face the viewer without speech. Their sombre looks, formal gestures and the monochrome green background conspire to give this an almost meditative note. The luxurious dress and jewellery only serve to add dignity to the work but Chassriau keeps the focus on these pair of faces and their relation. I believe this is what makes the painting so fascinating historically. It is a family portrait, but it can also be seen as a reflection of Chassriau 's artistry within nineteent-centur. France: its veinededges and courteous modelling stand as evidence of his academic education while the use of colour, ambientlighting and the introspective quality are seen as a hint ofthe Romanticleanings of his future work. But ultimately, for me, the painting becomes a study of sisterhood, through visual repetition: Two women who are meant to be in the same place, who almost, but not quite, mirror each other, and who remain, at the end of the day, themselves.