Artistic representations always reflect the values and norms of the contemporary societies. This paper focuses on the genre of portrait paintings and its relationship to the misogynistic social historical context. This paper specifically discusses the Spanish court painter Diego Velázquez's portrait series of Princess Margarita Teresa, and the Italian-American painter John Singer Sargent's "Daughters of Edward Darley Boit." Through analyzing the visual components such as composition, proportion

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... and lighting, the paper cross-examine the two artists' depictions of femininity. It can be concluded that these portraits' emphasis on innocence and virginity echo the expectations for females in the patriarchal, materialistic societies. The paper contributes to visual studies of Baroque and Realism artists.