Italian or Andalusian school, ca. 1850

Italian or Andalusian School, ca. 1850
"Rest on the road".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 37 x 50 cm; 46 x 60 cm (with frame)

This nineteenth-century painting is part of the tradition of naturalistic landscape with figure, reflecting a romantic sensibility towards nature and the humble condition of the peasant. In the foreground, a weary shepherd, dressed in simple clothes, has stopped to rest on the road. He sits on a rock with his body visibly worn out, perhaps from the weight of a long day or a life spent outdoors. At his side, his dog, a faithful and silent figure, watches him attentively. The landscape frames the scene with a contrasting play of chromatic planes: the golden ochre of the dry forest in contrast with the village dissolved in the distance, on the slopes of a bluish mountain.

The technical workmanship, which combines detail in the figure with a looser brushstroke in the background, suggests the hand of a painter versed in the transition between genre realism and romantic landscape painting, perhaps influenced by the regional schools of Naples or Seville, where this type of subject matter had a notable reception during the 19th century.