Audio Stop 215

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Two women with pale skin look out at us from the other side of a rectangular window opening with a shadowy interior behind them in this vertical painting. On our right, in the lower third of the composition, one young woman leans toward us over her left arm, which rests along the window ledge. She bends her right arm and props her chin on her fist. She looks at us with dark brown eyes under dark brows. She has shiny chestnut-brown hair with a strawberry-red bow on the right side of her head, to our left. She has a straight nose, and her full pink lips curve up in a smile. She wears a gossamer-white dress with a wide neckline trimmed in dark gray, with another red bow on the front of her chest. Her voluminous sleeves are pushed back to her elbows. To our left, a second woman peeks around a partially opened shutter. She is slightly older, and she stands next to the first woman with her body facing us. She tilts her head and also gazes at us with dark eyes under dark brown brows. She has dark brown hair covered by an oyster-white shawl. She holds the shawl up with her right hand to cover the bottom half of her face. Her mouth is hidden but her eyes crinkle as if in a smile. Her left arm bends at the elbow as she grasps the open shutter. She also wears a white shirt pushed back to her elbows, and a rose-pink skirt. The frame of the window runs parallel to the sides and bottom of the canvas. The room behind them is black in shadow.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Two Women at a Window, c. 1655/1660

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 34

Curator and head of Italian and Spanish paintings Eve Straussman Pflanzer discusses the intrigue found in this eye-catching painting by Esteban Murillo.

Read full audio transcript

STRAUSSMAN-PFLANZER:
Hi, I'm Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, curator and head of Italian and Spanish Paintings at the National Gallery of Art. [We see before us two women at an open window of two different ages; one more youthful and one a bit older.

NARRATOR:
The scene, painted by Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, around 1660, has us wondering.

STRAUSSMAN-PFLANZER:
Why are these two women at the window? Who are these two women? We don’t know the answers, but I think there's several interesting ways to think about the work.

NARRATOR:
The older woman seems to be hiding her amusement at something outside, behind her shawl. Her companion smiles too.

STRAUSSMAN-PFLANZER:
And for women of a certain class in society, it was not deemed decorous for them to laugh or openly smile in public. And then of course one needs to consider who was the intended viewer? Who is she smiling at? Honestly, we just don’t know.

NARRATOR:
Some believe it’s possible that the woman at right, with her coy smile and direct gaze, may be a prostitute, beckoning her next customer. It’s just as possible, however, that we’re seeing a woman of good standing being minded by her chaperone, exhibiting a moment of playfulness. Do they realize they are being seen? Or do they believe they are escaping notice? This ambiguity is part of the power of the picture.

STRAUSSMAN-PFLANZER:
There's a freeness and an accessibility to the women that I think is actually quite refreshing. Whether it was considered inappropriate or not in the period, I think for the present-day viewer there's something very visceral and immediate that's exciting and engaging.

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