You know, it’s more fun taking pictures when you’re officially not allowed to and there’s a guard watching everyone like a hawk….
Tthis particular piece depicts Martha and Mary Magdalene. According to Google:
The painting shows the Biblical sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene – Martha is in the act of converting Mary her life of pleasure to the life of virtue in Christ. Martha, her face shadowed, leans forward, passionately arguing with Mary, who twirls an orange blossom between her fingers as she holds a mirror, symbolizing the vanity she is about to give up. The power of the image lies in Mary’s face, caught at the moment when conversion begins.
EM was telling me how she had recently purchased a similar Napoleonic-era convex mirror (in the painting).
Link: LACMA