The image shows two children, a girl and a boy, depicted from head to toe. The girl is standing to the right, slightly turned towards the boy. She has dark hair tied back with a pink ribbon, and her facial features are serious with a fair complexion. The boy also has a fair complexion and short light-colored hair. They are both wearing matching red dresses with white lace collars and cuffs, and white pantalettes underneath. The boy holds a yellow ceramic jug decorated with a floral pattern, while the girl holds an open book in her hands. Around the girl's neck hangs a long chain with a circular pendant. The background features a dark, wooded area with bare trees, and in the distance, there is the silhouette of a house with smoke coming from the chimney, set against a pink and blue sky.

Sisters in Red

Sturtevant J. Hamblin

The image shows two children, a girl and a boy, depicted from head to toe. The girl is standing to the right, slightly turned towards the boy. She has dark hair tied back with a pink ribbon, and her facial features are serious with a fair complexion. The boy also has a fair complexion and short light-colored hair. They are both wearing matching red dresses with white lace collars and cuffs, and white pantalettes underneath. The boy holds a yellow ceramic jug decorated with a floral pattern, while the girl holds an open book in her hands. Around the girl's neck hangs a long chain with a circular pendant. The background features a dark, wooded area with bare trees, and in the distance, there is the silhouette of a house with smoke coming from the chimney, set against a pink and blue sky.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Sturtevant J. Hamblin
Date
c. 1840/1850
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 63.5 x 76.5 cm (25 x 30 1/8 in.) framed: 81.3 x 94.3 x 6.2 cm (32 x 37 1/8 x 2 7/16 in.)
Department
CAB
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Art Genome Taxonomy

7 tags

Subject Matter

  • Group Portrait Visual · 99%

    Two children are presented together as posed, full-length portrait subjects.

  • Childhood Visual · 99%

    The two subjects are visibly young children, with childlike facial features, proportions, and clothing.

  • Figures in Nature Visual · 97%

    The figures stand prominently within a wooded outdoor environment framed by trees and opening onto distant terrain.

Visual Qualities

  • Bright and Vivid Colors Visual · 98%

    Saturated red garments provide the dominant bright color against the darker woodland setting.

  • Dark Colors Visual · 96%

    Much of the surrounding woodland, ground, and foreground is rendered in deep green, brown, and near-black tones.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 99%

    The National Gallery of Art classifies the work as a painting in oil on canvas.

Time Periods

  • 19th Century Art Metadata · 99%

    The catalog dates the work to approximately 1840–1850, within the nineteenth century.

Source & rights

Sturtevant J. Hamblin. Sisters in Red. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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