Dorothea and Francesca

Cecilia Beaux · 1898

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

203.5 × 116.8 cm (80 1/8 × 46 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Impressionism

Dorothea and Francesca is one of Cecilia Beaux's most lyrical double portraits — two figures bound together in a quiet intimacy that feels both fleeting and permanent. Beaux was the foremost American portrait painter of her generation, trained in Paris under the influence of the Impressionists yet grounded in the rigorous tradition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she later became the first woman appointed to a full-time teaching position. Her technique here is characteristic of her best work: loose, confident brushwork in the gowns and background that gives way to careful attention in the faces, where personality quietly emerges. The composition has an effortless quality that took real mastery to achieve — the two figures lean toward each other with a naturalness that studio portraits of the era rarely managed. The painting was completed in 1898, the same year Beaux received the Gold Medal of Honor from the Pennsylvania Academy, cementing her reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is made to order on quality canvas, following the scale and palette of the original held at the Art Institute of Chicago. Every passage — from the soft fall of light on the dresses to the delicate handling of the faces — is worked by hand, giving you a faithful rendering that prints simply cannot provide.