French School, 19th century "Italian woman at the fountain"

Oil on canvas. No signature is observed. With antique gilded wood frame.

Represents a lady wearing a tunic, belt and a brown shawl with her hair tied back wearing a turban. She is leaning over the well where she will collect water with the vase in front of her. The landscape in the background is practically open sky, with texture and clouds that add depth to the scene, and on the left side an exotic motif such as a palm tree. In 19th century French painting, Academicism was one of the most relevant artistic movements, heir to Classicism and Romanticism, whose rules were established by the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. This type of pieces show a great quality in their execution but with renewed elements with respect to Classicism and Romanticism. In addition, it distances itself from Realism because it avoids portraying unpleasant aspects of our reality to focus on aesthetic themes and allegories, but with a real and non-idealized beauty. The theme of the painting is related to Orientalism, a genre that developed through neoclassicism and romanticism, but with academicism came the greatest glory to the genre. In part, it satisfies the curiosity to portray unknown elements, partly imagined, and mysterious for the European upper classes. In those salons of the wealthy classes, the contrast between the different scenarios and the female eroticism that was massively cultivated in the face of the Christian society of the time emerged.

The pictorial layer shows generalized craquelure.

Size: 92 x 74 cm; Size with frame: 110 x 93 cm