Strange Posture, Curious Gesture, Antique Snapshot of Women in Long Coats and Bonnets antique Mexican retablo painting 1880s British

1880s British

and some aging to the wooden base as well

and manner of its perch on that base--making me think of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic drawings of falcons

simple as can be

And then three links on either side

Strange Posture, Curious Gesture, Antique Snapshot of Women in Long Coats and Bonnets antique Mexican retablo painting 1880s BritishA very curious one, feeling to me like an early film still very striking, but what is going on here? Perhaps the woman in the foreground (what a face!) is in fact on ice skates, which would explain her strange posture, or perhaps she is hiding something or someone behind her skirt? (Is there a child there, bent over, in black too?) And what is the woman behind her with raised arm as if about to chop the air actually doing? I don't know, but in their