This striking double portrait, said to represent the artist’s mother, Gitel, and his sister, Sarah, who sat frequently for other portraits, may have been mistitled. The composition and the women’s costumes relate to Wolmark’s interest in theatre and decorative compositions in this period, often centred on two women. His bold, loose paint handling and the thick impasto used in the patterned shawls, demonstrate a gradual move away from his early Rembrandtesque style and palette and towards his ‘colourist’ period, when he embraced modernism from 1911 onwards. The theatrical setting of the figures against a dark backdrop may also relate to Wolmark’s admiration for Velazquez.