Augustus Leopold Egg
Anyone missing travelling? ; )
Today's painting depicts two well-dressed women who are sitting facing each other in a cramped first-class railway carriage, like mirror images. The women may be sisters.
They are dressed identically, in the same voluminous grey silk travelling clothes, with their hats identically placed on their laps. They are arranged symmetrically on seats to either side of the carriage window. The window has three parts, framing the view like a triptych. The coastline of Menton, on the French Riviera, is visible through the window, but neither woman seems to be paying any attention to this. The train is in motion, witnessed by the swinging tassel on the window blind. The carriage itself is symmetrical, as the women are.
The second word in the title may also suggest a certain irony. The two are companions in that they share the same space, and even share the same dress, and yet they do not interact. Each seems apathetic to all external elements of the experience: both the landscape far off, and the person nearby. In this painting the luxuries of the aristocracy and the rise of modern transportation capabilities intersect to isolate the two figures from everything beyond the individual: they travel in such comfort, but they discard the experience of traveling altogether.
P.S. If you miss traveling, check our series Art Travels! You can also go for Roman holidays here. <3