[1] This double portrait of eight-year-old Jenny and twelve-year-old Berthe is typical of Lemmen's detailed, austere portraiture.

He depicted the pair with penetrating gazes and a commanding presence, quite unlike the usual sentimentality of children's portraits.

[2] While the red of the girls' dresses and the blue of the background are the dominant colors, Lemmen used green and orange dots across the painting and the frame to enhance those hues.

Utilizing the opposite ends of the color wheel means the contrast effect stimulates greater brilliance in the red and blue than they would have evoked on their own.

His growing interest in the Arts and Crafts movement can be seen in the attention he paid to the tablecloth's pattern and money plant's twining tendrils.