The compelling presence of this double portrait is due as much to Lemmen's bold use of color as to the psychological overtones often found in his images. The color scheme is dominated by the red dresses and the blue backdrop, while dots of orange and green are distributed across both color zones. Lemmen's use of these colors illustrates the law of simultaneous contrast, that applying complementary hues-or opposites on the color wheel-in adjacent areas intensifies their difference and stimulates a brilliant effect.

The dotted frame, also based on juxtaposing complementary hues, is a rare example of an original Neo-Impressionist frame.

A member of the enthusiastic Belgian contingent who adopted Neo-Impressionism, Georges Lemmen wed intensity of mood with intensity of color to create a double portrait of commanding presence. The subjects, eight-year-old Jenny and twelve-year-old Berthe, were daughters of a family friend. Their penetrating gazes, typical of Lemmen’s detailed, austere approach to portraiture, recall the precise likenesses of the northern Renaissance tradition. Nothing could be further from a conventionally sentimental image of childhood.

For this likeness, Lemmen relied on blue, orange, red, and green—the complementary colors that stimulate the most vibrant contrasts—to produce a brilliant setting for his young subjects. Even the yellow hues of the brass vase are accompanied by contrasting points of violet in the background. Lemmen’s at, painted wood frame, one of the few surviving Neo-Impressionist examples, continues this dialogue of complements, as its colors vary in response to the adjacent hues on the canvas. The artist adhered most closely to the Neo-Impressionist methods from 1890 to 1895, before turning to looser brushwork and less rigorous division of color. He was increasingly absorbed by decorative arts and crafts, a tendency suggested in this portrait by the patterned tablecloth and winding tendrils of money plant. The vibrant portrait, from the Holliday Collection, bequeathed to the Museum in 1979, contributes to the IMA’s unusual strength in Belgian Neo-Impressionism.