An Afternoon Idyll by Auguste Toulmouche 1874. 

Yet another intriquing painting from this academic artist.  Two elaborately dressed women one in pink, the other in gold and blue have fallen asleep in one of Toulmouche’s opulent interiors.  Does the scene exude simply lanquid, exquisite boredom?  Or perhaps the book loosely held in the hand of women in pink that the two were reading did not hold their attention, but instead induced sleep?  Or perhaps this work is a comment on the lives of upper middle class women- pretty birds in a gilded cage with no other purpose then to be gazed upon and admired?  Indeed, the women asleep become beautiful objects like the red couch on which they sit or the gorgeous Japanese screen located behind them.  The screen is testament to the growing japonisme of the 1870’s both in consumer culture and high art.  (Many Impressionists looked at Japanese woodblock prints.)  Whatever, the painting’s intended meaning, it is a ravishing, jewel-like work that is a delectable feast for the eye.