Madeleine Lerolle and Her Daughter Yvonne

Albert Besnard was a good friend of fellow artist Henri Lerolle, whose wife Madeleine and daughter Yvonne are the subjects of this double portrait set in a studio. The artist’s profession is referenced in the large portfolios of drawings at lower right, and the easel at upper left, which displays a canvas tipped forward at an unusual angle. The canvas has been strapped to the easel in this position so the artist can more easily paint while seated.

Background drawn from Cleveland Museum of Art

Robert Frost was an American poet known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. He frequently drew on the settings of rural New England in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes.

"Dust of Snow" is characteristic of this method: a small, concrete rural incident carries a larger emotional weight. The poem is brief—two four-line stanzas in short, tightly rhymed lines—and describes a single moment in which a crow dislodges snow from a hemlock tree onto the speaker.

That ordinary event produces the poem's turn: the falling snow gives the speaker's heart "a change of mood" and redeems part of a day he "had rued." The poem's interest lies in how it locates a shift in feeling in a trivial, almost accidental encounter with the natural world, without commentary or explanation.

Background drawn from curated & Wikipedia