In the picture, Petrov-Vodkin portrayed young women against a backdrop of a broad river and transparent skies. The girls are dressed in bright and colorful clothes. There is no story behind the composition. The author simply wanted to show the unity of the sky and the earth and the human being. He expressed that idea using a special color palette, smooth lines and the entire rhythm of the painting.

 
Religious painting informed Petrov-Vodkin’s life from his early age. His native town of Khvalynsk is an ancient center of Old Belief. The town is surrounded by numerous churches and old monasteries. In his childhood, the artist watched local masters, and, afterwards, he also dabbled in icon-painting. 

 
Many years later, Petrov-Vodkin, already an adult man, attended an exhibition of old Russian painting in Moscow and wrote: Novgorod samples and the masters Rublev and Dionisius seemed to me kindred spirits, familiar from my childhood. From icon-painting, the artist borrowed comprehension of color and an unusual outlook of perspective. 

 
In his work, Petrov-Vodkin used spherical perspective. In other words, he painted space as though it were convex. The figures are put forward into the foreground and fill almost the entire picture. This produces an impression of the girls looking into the eye of the viewer.

Art critics hail the painting Two Girls, alongside Girls on the Volga, as the pinnacle of the artist’s early period. They reflect the pathway that Petrov-Vodkin had covered searching for his own style and imagery.