During the formative years that Degas spent working in Italy, 1856 to 1859, he made copies after old masters as well as studies of men and women in local costume, both subjects popular among the community of French
artists who flocked to Rome. This painting combines a figural style and palette reminiscent of Poussin with an eye for realist detail, evident in the rendering of the woman’s wizened skin and gnarled hands.
Monumental and unsparing, the picture avoids the picturesque sentimentality common to many contemporary images of peasants and beggars.
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