Théodore Chassériau: Two Sisters
Théodore Chassériau was just twenty-four years old when he painted this portrait of his two sisters. The work is widely regarded as one of his masterpieces and was considered by the renowned Impressionist painter Edgar Degas to be one of the most beautiful paintings of the century. Immediately captivating viewers with its charm is a device used by Chassériau to convey his own strong affection for his sisters. The two women stand arm in arm but their identical clothing, jewelry, and hairstyle make them seem even more closely connected—like twins. In reality, Marie-Antoinette on the left, known to the painter as Adèle, was already thirty-three while her sister Geneviève, better known as Aline, was only twenty-one. The exotic overtones present in the dark hair and complexion of the two women, which evoke the family’s Caribbean origins, are heightened by their red shawls with an Indian pattern. The red of these shawls corresponds in turn to the red of their lips and cheeks. Physically, the Chassériau sisters resemble their Creole mother. The young painter borrowed the precise modeling of the fabrics and surfaces and strong chromatic correspondences from his teacher Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. [
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