Ciocciara
Ca. 1862. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
A young peasant girl from the Lazio flirts with her hands, dressed in traditional costume and leaning on a wall. The picturesque type of Italian country girl known as a ciociara was an extremely popular subject among European painters travelling in Italy at this period. Located in a setting skilfully constructed through the use of a low-level light, Rosales sketches out the figure using broad brushstrokes and rich colours.
The model´s ample blouse, bluish skirt and dark bodice contrast with the painting´s overall greenish-brown color scheme. Also notable are the relaxed brushstrokes, applied with broad, broken gestures. The lighting and the demarcation of the figure´s silhouette help to build the figure in space. In that sense, this work is close to the sobriety of Corot or Courbet´s French realism, while the imprecise drawing of the young woman´s hands and the resultant sense of movement recall some of Velasquez´s works. This painting was acquired for the Museum of Modern Art on 18 November 1940.
Díez, José Luis, 'Eduardo Rosales. Ciociara'. El siglo XIX en el Prado, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007, p.202-204 n.36
