European school of the 19th century.

European school of the XIX century.
"Laundress".
Oil on canvas.
It has damage and missing paint in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 46.5 x 38 cm; 58 x 49 cm (frame).

Costumbrista scene of delicate sensitivity and attention to human detail. The figure of a young washerwoman, represented in full body, barefoot and dressed with short sleeves and a simple apron, occupies the foreground. She carries a wicker basket full of clothes, which she holds naturally, as she prepares to enter the shallow river that is hinted at by the large rocks emerging from the water.

The artist focuses on the female figure, modeled with softness and luminosity. Her face, with sweet features and slightly rosy cheeks, conveys freshness. A scarf tied around her head frames her distracted expression, as the girl looks towards a point outside the painting, as if absorbed or surprised by something unrelated to her task.

The careful and realistic pictorial treatment reflects the nineteenth-century taste for rural and intimate scenes, in which daily work acquires a poetic air.