This double portrait depicts two brothers dressed in the height of fashion for the 1850s, clearly asserting their social status. Jean-Baptiste (left, age 23) carries gloves and a walking stick. René-Charles (right, age 25) wears an embroidered black velvet suit in the exotic à la grecque mode (in the Greek style) inspired by the Greek war of independence (1821–32). Flandrin represents the figures in an academic style emphasizing line over color, reflecting his training as a pupil of J. A. D. Ingres.