19th century Spanish school.
"Prayer on the wall".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 73,5 x 92 cm; 91,5 x 110 cm (frame).
The new 19th century costume painting was born as a way of interpreting a growing feeling of national conscience, now present in the middle class as it advanced towards social hegemony. To a certain extent, the painters' concern was to deepen the vision of their country through a language, that of painting, which everyone could understand, thus helping the common people to understand the nature and meaning of their nationality, especially as it had manifested itself in the recent past, still vivid in the memory of the elders. Of the two fundamental costumbrista schools of 19th-century Spain, the Sevillian and Madrid schools, the latter differs from the gentle picturesqueness of the former in its more pungent and harsh vision, sometimes going so far as to depict not only the vulgar, but even indulging in heart-rending visions of a clichéd world of the working class, in which the spirit of criticism is evident.