The Art Institute of Chicago

In this captivating double portrait, the fashionable Maistre sisters appear in complementary flowing muslin gowns and delicate gold jewelry. Ninette, in black, wraps her arm delicately yet protectively around her sister Suzette’s waist as both look out toward the viewer. Originally a star pupil of Jacques-Louis David, the artist Antoine-Jean Gros became one of the leading painters of France during Napoleon’s reign. Here he created the visual sensation of a gentle breeze by animating the sitters’ gauze-like draperies and chestnut curls. Dense foliage, at times blending in with the curls, frames the pair and opens onto a gleaming landscape background. See "Portrait of the Maistre Sisters" (1796) on view in Gallery 219.