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.