The Night Letter

In this painting, Cortor depicts a domestic interior featuring an older woman and a young girl. The artist's use of soft yellows, browns and reds creates an aura of warmth that surrounds the subjects. The young girl bears a distraught look on her face as she holds an opened letter in her hand. The artist highlights the girl's concern by physically hiding her body within the surrounding furniture. The older woman in the foreground appears calm and reassuring, her face reveals little of her internal thoughts (a feeling of uneasiness can be seen in her fingering the pages of her Bible). The warm glow of the kerosene lamp bathes the small space in a way that the flickering reflected in shadows on the walls seem to engulf both females as they ponder and discuss the contents of the letter.