Spanish school; early 20th century.

Spanish school; early 20th century. "Portrait of a lady in Ansotana costume". Oil on canvas. It presents multiple damages and faults in the frame. Measurements: 67 x 57 cm; 54,5 x 46 cm (frame). This scene is represented by the bust of a young woman, who stands out not only for the rotundity of her look and her gesture, but also for the exceptional costume she wears. With a medieval-inspired headdress and a green tunic adorned with a scapular hanging over her shoulder, it can be deduced that the protagonist is an Ansotana, as she is wearing the regional costume characteristic of the Ansó valley. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the inhabitants of the valley came down to Madrid to sell their local products, dressed in the regional costume of the area, which attracted a great deal of attention, inspiring great artists such as the designer Paul Poiret, and even Sorolla himself, who portrayed them in his great mural "Tipos populares, commissioned by Archer Milton, to decorate the library of the Hispanic Society of New York. Sorolla's fascination was such that he hired a grandmother and her granddaughter from Ansó to pose in their costumes, and he travelled to the Ansó valley on several occasions in 1912 and 1914, where he met the women he had hired. It is highly probable that this work specifically portrays Sebastiana Brun, the young granddaughter who was hired by Sorolla, as her features are very similar to those of the photograph taken by the painter...