Unlike most of the toilettes painted by modernist artists, this one stands out for its domestic focus and its realist language. Despite the light-filled room’s appearance of cosy intimacy, Godoy’s work contains a veiled critique of the mother, who is neglecting her children and her untidy home while she combs her hair absent-mindedly in front of a mirror. The work forms part of the nineteenth-century construction of femininity with the emphasis on the idea of childcare as a mother’s responsibility.

G. Navarro, Carlos, Invitadas. Fragmentos sobre mujeres, ideología y artes plásticas en España (1833-1931), Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2020, p.167 nº 20