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The two sisters
(Les Deux Soeurs)
(c. 1800)
Medium
oil on wood panel
Measurements
(40.2 × 31.8 cm)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2022
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Louis-Léopold Boilly’s depictions of everyday life, known as genre painting, focused in particular on representing
family. In this painting, the delicate touch of Boilly’s hand emphasises the tenderness of the protective gesture of an older sister towards her younger sibling. The use of a windowed border to frame the subject was inspired by the works of the Dutch sixteenth and seventeenth-century painters and became popular with eighteenth-century French art collectors.