Object Description
This is a wonderful image, a hangover from the era of Victorian genre paintings but a very modern painting for 1889. More of a transitional style, it could easily have been painted in the early twentieth century. The pose of the model is very natural, seemingly unposed in fact. The unconscious way in which she goes about her chores is beguiling, and the light is masterly. Even more impressive that Rönquist painted this while still a student of twenty five at the Swedish Royal Academy. Rather disappointingly a brief trawl through the net shows that her later output regressed into rather turgid conformity. Although commercially successful she didn’t fulfil the promise of this absolute gem, dying tragically of pneumonia at only 48.