French school, ca. 1850

French school, ca. 1850.
"La tertulia".
Oil on panel.
Unsigned.
With craquelures.
Measurements: 25 x 18 cm.

Three ladies converse heatedly in an interior. Their opulent dresses and their sophisticated hairstyles tell us about the high social cradle to which they belong. While two of them are immersed in the conversation, oblivious to the viewer's presence, the third girl gives us a defiant and mischievous look. This genre of paintings, called "de casacones", was one of the most demanded by the public during the 19th century. They were genre scenes set in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their name comes from the jackets worn by the male protagonists.