Untitled (two girls in matching dreses seated in studio for portrait, legs crossed) after 1940

Paul Gittings made this gelatin silver print of two young girls sometime in the twentieth century. The girls are dressed in identical outfits, seated in a studio, and posed for the camera. Studio portraiture, like that practiced by Gittings, arose alongside the growth of a new urban middle class. It was a way for people to present themselves according to social codes of the time. Here, the girls are dressed in matching dresses, in a way that reflects the social expectations of the time. Gittings operated a commercial portrait studio. Understanding the work of such studios requires us to look into business records, client lists, and advertising materials. These help to reveal the mechanics of how art intersects with social status and cultural trends. Art, then, is always enmeshed in social life.