This remarkable early 20th century image is beautifully composed and executed: the amount of background is limited like the best of the 18th century portraits in oils, the light is perfection, the focus is extremely shallow – not much more than the faces – everything else is soft.
The mother is composure itself, the daughter ambivalent, the baby entertained by it all.
Ever so often culture gets carried away: "bigger is better" whether cars, houses, hats or any number of other things. This is about 1915 when such hats were the rage in higher society. You have to wonder what became of them when the fashion changed; did some enterprising milliner buy them up, take them apart and make six new hats? Five years earlier the craze was for great bucket-like cranial excrescences, but at least you could use those for lampshades after you were done with them!