Don’t you hate it when someone tells you to be in a picture that you really don’t want to be in?

Degas was not just your prima ballerina painter…he painted uncomfortable family portraits from time to time as well. I would go so far as to call this one the Degas versions of Keeping up with the Kardashians. Degas was related to the Bellilli family and lived with them in Florence after he’d finished studying in Paris. He started off with a group picture of the whole family, back when the Bellilli sisters were pinafore clad little things, and then years later painted just the girls in what seems to be their twenties. In case you haven’t noticed, this painting really isn’t the epitome of sisterly bonding.

No, Degas’ cousins, Giulia and Giovanna, don’t look like they stepped off the set of The Brady Bunch. Both sisters look terse and distant, and they’re sharing a classic I-may-have-to-sit-with-you-but-I-don’t-have-to-like-it moment. Giulia and Giovanna may have shared some animosity towards each other, but Degas (who wasn’t exactly a people person himself) loved this portrait. In fact, he kept it with him until he died because this was probably the last time he ever saw his cousins. He wrote of them that, “The elder one was in fact a little beauty. The younger one, on the other hand, was smart as can be and as kind as an angel.” Though it's not entirely clear which is which in the painting.

These alienating portraits could’ve also reflected Degas’ feelings on the changing, modern world as well. The disconnected sitters could very well symbolize modernity and all of its (dis)contents. Heck, put a cell phone in front of each girl and it’s a family reunion in 2016.