« Studio Of The Absurd »

A cabinet card so odd in its composition and particulars that it leaves you thinking, "Surely there is some allegory here that escapes me!" Sisters, not identical twins despite their twin dresses, divided by a table, a book and two potted plants framed by a backdrop painted assembly-line-style on a bad day by some hacks. They wear watches: the woman on the right has hers pinned to her bodice while the one on the left has hers on a chatelaine and holds it a la The Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland – "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!"

Their (1910) hair styling is only slightly different. The dresses may be off the rack and the same size – the woman on the right is several inches taller, has a higher waist and longer legs, causing the hem to fall those inches higher from the floor (or maybe this was by choice?). They wear identical bows and brooches but we won't know about the shoes.

I cropped the image considerably, especially at top (yes, there was more of that lovely background – just in case someone walked in who was eight feet tall, or acrobats wanted to pose with one standing on the other's shoulders). It occurs to me that this image could be sliced vertically down the center to make two more attractive individual portraits.