Peasant Scene
Ca. 1665. Pencil on laid paper.Not on display
The drawing depicts a shepherd seated under a tree next to a few cows. Meanwhile, a woman with a child in her arms walks away with her back turned.
This work accompanies others that are analogous in nature and that are held in the Academy of San Fernando and in the National Library. Mullers dates them back to the 1660s, an assertion that is firmly based on its stylistic similarity to the composition drawings in the Uffizi, one of which is dated 1665. They are very interesting and almost exceptional within Spanish art because of their fresh study of nature. Soria has pointed out the obvious confluences with Bloemaert’s motifs that Castillo may have known through the prints. Nevertheless, their directly naturalistic character is confirmed by Palomino’s statement that, ‘he went out for a few days on a walk on a drawing errand and created likenesses of various natural locations. Meanwhile, he also took advantage of the huts and farmhouses of that land. He additionally created likenesses of the animals, carts and other objects close by’.
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E., Catálogo de Dibujos. Vol. I. Dibujos españoles siglos XV-XVII, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1972, p.79
