Valencian school; XIX century.

Valencian School; XIX century.
"Female portrait.
Oil on canvas.
Presents breaks in the canvas.
Measurements: 68 x 112 cm.
In this Valencian painting of the XIX century, the spectator is in front of a scene that, although apparently simple, becomes a vivid testimony of the pictorial costumbrismo characteristic of the nineteenth-century Valencian school. The golden background gives the scene a timeless and symbolic air, as if the figure portrayed transcends its everyday life to become an icon of cultural identity. As the protagonist, a young fallera appears seated in profile, but with her face turned towards the viewer.
Dressed in the traditional fallera dress, meticulously detailed in its embroidery, lace and jewelry, the woman holds with one hand a tray of horchata and fartons, and with the other a fartón that seems to be offered to the viewer. It is an idealized representation but full of verisimilitude of popular Valencian customs. The painting, in its careful technical execution, reflects the influence of a realistic aesthetic that was embraced by the Valencian school under the impulse of artists like Joaquín Agrasot or Bernardo Ferrándiz, who knew how to combine the academic tradition with the study of nature and ethnographic interest.
In this context, costumbrismo is not reduced to the mere picturesque description of regional types, but stands as a visual expression of the popular soul, of a cultural universe in the process of modernization that, nevertheless, clings to its daily rituals. The choice of the fallera as the protagonist is not arbitrary: she embodies femininity, tradition and celebration, she is the axis of a Valencian identity that is projected both privately and collectively.