French Woman and a Young Girl – Autumn 1855

A young woman and a girl visit with an older woman who sits on a park bench. The woman on the left wears a lavender dress with a long skirt with four ruffled tiers. The bodice is styled like a fichu with bold black ribbons crossing in front. The bodice has dropped shoulders, a jewel neckline with a wide falling collar of white lace, and pagoda sleeves over white full puffed sleeves gathered in below the elbow. Black ribbons also stream down the sleeves from the dropped shoulders.

A black ribbon and lace cap sits back over her center parted hair arranged in bands smoothed to the back. She wears black net fingerless mitts and holds a turquoise parasol at her side. In the center stands a young girl who is speaking to the older woman. The young girl wears a turquoise dress, also with a skirt of four tiers reaching just below her knees. The bodice has two bands of ruching horizontally across the front and in a “V” pattern from shoulder to waist. The short sleeves are hemmed with more ruching. She wears a white blouse and white lace pantalettes. On her right wrist she wears a gold bangle bracelet.

The older woman seated on a green wire bench wears a long russet colored dress with three groupings of thin black horizontal stripes on the skirt. She wears a white blouse underneath with below elbow length full ruffled sleeves. Over that she wears a black mantelet with scalloped edges edged with narrow ruffles and trimmed with wide black velvet vertical panels. She wears a white bonnet with pink ribbons, roses, and lace and a wide gold bracelet with a medallion. Behind the group is a white wall that might be part of a stair, and two large trees.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges