Gabrielle d'Estrées and One of Her Sisters

Gabrielle d'Estrées and One of Her Sisters is one of the most enigmatic and widely reproduced paintings of the French Renaissance. Painted around 1594 by an unknown artist of the School of Fontainebleau, the work depicts two nude women seated side by side in a bathtub, with one woman—identified as the Duchess of Villars—pinching the nipple of the other, Gabrielle d'Estrées, the favorite mistress of King Henry IV of France.

The gesture is widely interpreted as an allusion to Gabrielle's pregnancy with the king's illegitimate son, César de Vendôme, born in 1594. The ring Gabrielle holds in her left hand may symbolize Henry IV's promise of marriage. In the background, a woman sits sewing by a fireplace, working on what appears to be baby clothes, reinforcing the theme of impending motherhood.

The painting's peculiar iconography, frontal nudity, and matter-of-fact intimacy make it a quintessential example of the sophisticated and often cryptic art of the School of Fontainebleau. Its striking imagery has made it one of the most recognized paintings of the late Renaissance, inspiring countless references and parodies in modern art and popular culture.