TWO LADIES

BY WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN

The halftone image is in portrait orientation. The image shows two young women or girls standing in an outdoor scene, taking up almost the whole height of the picture plane. The woman on the left side is standing turned slightly to the right. She is wearing a long gown that has a very low cut and off-the-shoulder style neckline. The dress flows out at the waist into a mid-size skirt. The top of the dress is a corset. The shoulderless sleeves fall down to her wrist and have a single horizontal stripe of ruffles. In her right hand is a bouquet of flowers hanging upside down. Her chest is bare, apart from the two ribbons hanging down from a wide brimmed hat she wears slanted down and casting a shadow over her face. Her hair is pulled back underneath the hat. She has slightly upturned lips. Her eyes stare straight ahead at the viewer. Her left arm is pulled behind her slightly. The other woman, who is on the right side, is standing turned slightly to the right side of the page as well. She is wearing a very loose dress, one that is low-cut and appears to fall below her breasts. There is one off-the-shoulder sleeve wrapped around her right arm, but none appears on her left arm. Her right hand is extended out to the side and seems to reach towards the other woman’s left hand. Her left arm is bent up at a ninety degree angle and is holding the dress at the front and covering her breasts. A bit of excess material is draped over top of this left arm and hangs down her front. She also has on a brimmed hat, a slightly smaller one than the other woman’s. The hat has two ribbons falling down from it and the right ribbon falls over her chest while the other is tucked behind her left shoulder. Her slightly wavy hair falls down behind her shoulders. In the middle of the two women and backgrounded is a sailboat. This boat floats in the water that extends out to the skyline in the background. There is only a small opening to see the boat and the water behind it though, for the rest of the background is filled with a dark hedge.

MLA citation:

Rothenstein, William. “Two Ladies.” The Savoy, vol. 2, April 1896, p. 165. The Savoy Digital Edition, edited by Christopher Keep and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra 2018-2019. Yellow Nineties 2.0, Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2019, https://1890s.ca/savoyv2_rothenstein_ladies/

magazine_images The Savoy 2 Two Ladies William Rothenstein Oil painting Paul Naumann Europe Hat, Bouquet, Ribbon, Corset, and Wide-brimmed hat Female Figure/ Woman, Dress, Hat, and Women 1890s Outdoor setting, Garden, Water, Ocean, Woods/ forest, Skyline, and Nature