What’s up with the strange “RJ II” scrawl on the source painting?

Maybe I’m taking things way too seriously for c/memes, but this painting is so, uh … racy? It got me curious. It’s called “The Reading,” by an Italian painter named Vittorio Reggianini, who was far more modern than I had expected (1858-1939). Those clothing styles are (I think) from before his own time; he was painting the flirtations of rich youngsters from a century before his day. Historical fiction, really.

The commercial break back then was just the street sellers coming in