Dorothea and Francesca

Dorothea and Francesca — Cecilia Beaux. 1898.

Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 203.5 × 116.8 cm (80 1/8 × 46 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Cecilia Beaux explored the line between portraiture and figure painting in Dorothea and Francesca , which focuses less on the individuality of the sitters and more on their coordinated movements. The composition features two children of Beaux’s friends Helena de Kay and Richard Watson Gilder, a prominent couple in New York’s cultural scene. A double portrait of the daughters engaged in a dancing lesson, the work visually evokes the transition from girlhood to adolescence. A female artist competing for portrait commissions in the male-dominated art market of the turn of the 20th century, Beaux fared exceedingly well. She was also an influential teacher, becoming the first woman to secure a faculty position at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.