Fight for life, by Torre y Estefanía (1895)

Luchar por la vida.jpg

Title

Fight for life, by Torre y Estefanía (1895)

Creator

Torre y Estefanía, Rafael de la (1890-1934)

Date

1895

Description

"The academic culture of the Spanish 19th century introduced the concept of decency in the representation of the female nude. During the Restoration, the images of women who, due to economic necessity, were forced to pose naked for the artists proliferated and these, in return, consciously hid their faces to preserve their dignity. In this work, the model hides her nudity with a dramatic gesture. The despondency is underlined by the presence of an older woman of humble extraction who seems to remind her of her situation of need. The painter assigns to the fabrics that cover the model a prominence comparable to that of her body, which seems to be ironic about the consideration of objects that both the cloths and the nudes had in the artists' academic training." (Translated description from the National Museum of Prado, Madrid, Spain,
https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/luchar-por-la-vida/5c8fdc15-e4a5-43f7-9de0-d7d0df7fd471, Archived in: https://web.archive.org/web/20190407025105/https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/luchar-por-la-vida/5c8fdc15-e4a5-43f7-9de0-d7d0df7fd471)

The older woman next to the model could also represent a procuress.

Format

Oil on canvas.
Dimensions: 259,5 × 205 cm

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