Ladies in conversation: an 18th century costume piece

Bocion's Ladies in Conversation, painted in 1848, is another of his eighteenth-century costume pieces that combine period figures with the lakeside settings of western Switzerland. These paintings reflect the mid-nineteenth-century nostalgia for the elegant social world of the ancien regime that was particularly strong among Swiss and French collectors. Bocion's historical fantasies are among his most decorative and commercially appealing works.

Bocion's oil-on-canvas technique renders the costumed figures with gentle elegance while the landscape setting benefits from his naturalistic observation of Lake Geneva's distinctive light. The intimate scale and soft palette create a refined, decorative effect.