Born in Philadelphia, Cecilia Beaux studied art in Paris and became the first woman teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In the summer of 1888, she traveled to the picturesque seaside village of Concarneau in Brittany. For Beaux, painting in the open air held the promise of a new artistic era. Twilight Confidences reflects her fascination with the crisp white collars and wing-like caps that the women there wore. Its subject also suggests her ambition. Years earlier, while an art student in Philadelphia, she had seen a copy of Jean-Francois Millet’s painting Angelus, which also shows French peasants. As Beaux recalled, the “romantic dignity” of Millet’s picture “made the paintings near it look common.”
出生于费城的塞西莉亚-博克斯（Cecilia Beaux）曾在巴黎学习艺术，并成为宾夕法尼亚美术学院的第一位女教师。1888年夏天，她来到了布列塔尼风景如画的海边村庄孔卡尔诺。对于博克斯来说，户外绘画预示着一个新的艺术时代的到来。《黄昏的秘密》（Twilight Confidences）反映了她对当地女性穿着的白色硬领和翼状帽子的喜爱。画的主题也暗示了她的雄心。几年前当她还是费城的一名艺术系学生时，她曾看过让-弗朗索瓦·米勒（Jean-Francois Millet）的画作《晚祷》（Angelus）的复制品，那幅画也描绘了法国的农民。正如博克斯回忆，米勒画作里的“浪漫的庄重” “使近似它的画看起来平庸”。
During Beaux’s studies at twilight, she sought to capture colors as they glanced across her models’ faces and clothing. Her lessons that summer with American painters Charles Lasar and Alexander Harrison nurtured this interest in the shifting light and brilliant colors of French Impressionism. Canvases like this one, which were the result of her diligent study, led Harrison to declare that Beaux had “the stuff that digs and thinks and will not be satisfied and is never weary of the effort of painting nor counts the cost.”
在博克斯对黄昏的研究中，她试图捕捉扫过模特脸部和衣服的颜色。那年夏天她与美国画家查尔斯·拉萨尔（Charles Lasar）和亚历山大·哈里森（Alexander Harrison）一起上课，培养了她对法国印象派变幻莫测的光线和绚丽色彩的兴趣。这幅油画便是她勤奋研习的成果，这使哈里森称博克斯“有深入思考的能力，从不满足现状，且永远不会厌倦绘画工作也不计代价。”
We present today's painting thanks to the Georgia Museum of Art. : )
感谢乔治亚艺术博物馆和我们分享今天这幅画作。: ))
hold the promise of 有望成为
