Pastel On Canvas - Gilded Wood Frame - Portrait Of Two Girls - Period: 19th Century - Circa: 1894

Magnificent pastel on canvas representing two little girls of the 19th century city bourgeoisie.

The frame is in wood gilded with leaf and beautifully enhanced by a frieze of various and varied foliage or ivy leaves, a symbol of fidelity and eternal life, wonderfully underlines the freshness of the angelic faces and the blonde hair of these two sisters.

Period: 19th century
Circa: 1894
Dimensions: Height: 75cm x Width: 65cm
Signature: Bottom right
Portrait painter: Unknown

If child portraiture became a popular genre in Europe in the 16th century, it was during the Age of Enlightenment , that it develops in France.

However, the little models are still very often subject to the codes of the official portrait, showing them in their best educated light.

The accentuated taste for more intimate representations at the end of the Ancien Régime, and the development of family feeling, thanks to the gradual decline in infant mortality, place the child at the center of the picture.

From the 19th century, painters no longer sought to disguise it as a large person or a small picturesque subject, but sought its truth.

Next to the city bourgeoisie, still posing, other children play the newsboys. Naturalism will eventually have the last word, in the 20th century.

The 19th century is not only that of Delacroix, Van Gogh or Cézanne.
The immense success of the Impressionists has often thrown into obscurity (contempt and ignorance mixed together) many artists practicing all genres, often appreciated during their lifetime, then fallen into oblivion.

Nevertheless, the 19th century is one of the richest in the history of painting.