Admiration 

Vittorio Reggianini painted "Admiration," an oil on canvas, sometime between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Reggianini, an Italian artist, specialized in genre scenes set in opulent interiors, often depicting bourgeois society. Here, Reggianini stages a narrative where gender and class intersect within the confines of a lavish domestic space. The women, adorned in elegant gowns, are positioned as objects of admiration and contemplation. The central couple, seated on a settee, engage in a flirtatious exchange, with the woman holding a fan adding an element of coquetry to the scene. Meanwhile, another group of women gather around a canvas, possibly critiquing or admiring a work of art, reinforcing the idea of women as both subjects and observers within the cultural sphere. Reggianini invites viewers to reflect on the social dynamics and power structures that governed relationships between men and women, and how these dynamics played out in the context of artistic representation and social display.