Learning to Braid

This engaging painting depicts two young girls working on braiding their hair. The artist has carefully observed the complexities of the hand positions required for the hairstyle. The figures concentrate on the task and are not aware of the viewer’s presence.

Not much is known about Gray, who exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where this work was purchased by the Reading Public Museum in 1918. She may have been active in Nova Scotia and in California as a landscape painter.