Thanks for the observations Julie!
You are right that darkening the area would bring the focus on the girl. I had darkened the background in photoshop
here. After that experiment, the background got knocked down several values, which did wonders for the painting. I will check to see if making it daker further would help even more.
The post on the other hand, did not get that attention and will have to be looked at in photoshop. Maybe one more wash of raw umber will do the trick.