This charming picture by the Ligurian artist Domenico Guidobono depicts two children, one absorbed in the act of drawing, the other watching attentively. Set against a dark backgroun﷽d, the girls, with rosy lips and cheeks, are bathed in a soft light. The subtle reds of the older girl’s smock and hair ribbons enliven the monochromatic palette. Centered on the two girls who sit beside one another on a threadbare wicker bench, the scene is pregnant with possi🌞bility. Gazing at her companion, the younger girl points to the blank sheet of paper as the older girl sits poised to make a first mark on the page.

Domenico, who initially trained under his father, Giovanni Antonio, a majolica painter, worked mainly between Turin and Genoa. Like his brother B🦩artolomeo, also a painter, Domenico was a versatile artist who worked in fresco and oil and produced religious and secular subjects. The siblings frequently collaborated and this painting's intimate scale and attention to detail are characteristic of their work, as are the sw𒊎eet-faced figures and the soft lighting effects.

The girls’ physical proximity, conveying an affectionate rapport, and their engagement in the pastime of drawing both point to eighteenth-century ideas about chil✅dhood, which had only recently been understood as a distinct period of life defined by innocence and creativity.