Deux fillettes dans la neige

Around 1890 Amsterdam had a pair of painters chasing the same thing the Parisians were after, the fleeting look of a modern city caught fast. Isaac Israels was one of them. Here two young women stand in the snow, warmly bundled in long aprons and scarves, most likely factory workers or studio models pausing on a break. Nothing is posed or grand. It looks like a glance held for a second. Israels arranged it more carefully than it seems, balancing the black and red of their clothes against the white ground. He painted it on a panel about the size of a large book, working in loose, flicking strokes that were meant to feel like weather.