Two young women, dressed in the regional ethnic costumes of both Bela Krajina and Gorenjska (White and Upper Carniola, respectively), are reading a letter together. The artist placed a spindle next to them, likely as a decorative element. The National Gallery bought the work from the artist in 1922 under the title Belokranjici (Prijateljici), or Friends. Vesel was interested in ethnic dress even as a child, beginning to collect costumes under the influence of the veterinarian Sadnikar; Vesel, Sadnikar, and Ivana Kobilca travelled the countryside during their break from studies and made a record of local idiosyncrasies. In terms of its ethnographic theme, it can be compared with Vesel’s later work Before the Wedding (Pred Svatbo, NG S 528), while its colour palette is typical of Ferd Vesel’s (and Ivana Kobilca’s) Munich years.