[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

These are portraits of two young girls. I was very happy when I received the commission, as I immediately was interested in their incredibly fair complexion.
I looked for an original composition and came up with the horizontal format looking back at some of my works and after having seen a painting at the Pompeo Batoni show at the National Gallery. Historically they refer to the "sopraporta", paintings to be hanged above doors ( even if I hope they will be hanged in a more visible position )
The paintings are a combination of several live sittings and some studio work from photos.

The younger girl was quite desperate about the whole thing, it was slightly cruel to make her sit and she was upset because she didn't want her hair up, but I still like the result a lot. If a portrait is also about the relationship with the sitter this is definitely a good example of it. Her sulky mood lasted for several sittings, even during the last one, when I hoped I could have a happier face, there were a couple of tears. I had no choice then to leave her pout.

I wanted the works to stand alone as paintings, hence the theatrical setting. One is " The letter", the other "`Young girl with fruit". I kept this idea in mind while working and it helped me to avoid getting into too much fuss.
As in my recent work color and drawing are becoming more relevant than solidity of the form.
The execution of the faces is not particularly realistic, even though I tried to have the sequins painted in a more illusionistic way just to relate with a more formal representation.
In both paintings I composed on the diagonal.
I will add a link to a higher resolution image later on, this format is penalized by uploading restrictions.