Probable position of the Fish Bowl before the Flood
1890. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
The title itself is highly expressive of the anecdotal, literary and conventional nature of a certain genre of fin-de-siecle painting, which is entirely bourgeois and domestic in character, sensibility and mentality. However, with all its limitations, this minor painting, executed with a sober and effective technique almost throughout, carries extraordinary value as a document. Apart from the superficiality of the plot and the naïve word game of the title, the painting is an excellent testimony to the overbearing environments of the time where children, confined and controlled by the fierce rules of ‘composure’, found their escape in curiosity and mischief.
Pérez Sánchez, A.E (com), El niño en el Museo del Prado, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes, 1983, p.153
