Spanish School, circa 1900

Spanish School, circa 1900.
"Female Figure."
Oil on cardboard.
In good condition. It has slight damage to the edges, consistent with its age.
Measurements: 25 × 32.5 cm; 49 × 59 cm (frame).

With its loose brushwork and sketchy quality, the work is part of the renewal of Spanish figurative painting around the turn of the century, when an interest in ordinary people and scenes of daily life was combined with an increasingly free and direct style.

The figure is rendered with broad, impasto brushstrokes, with particular attention paid to the chromatic hallmarks of her attire and the subdued gesture of the subject. The vagueness of the background focuses attention on the woman and reinforces the immediate, almost sketch-like quality of the composition.