Still-life with Oranges by Rafael Romero Barros - 1863 - 54 x 68 cm Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba Still-life with Oranges by Rafael Romero Barros - 1863 - 54 x 68 cm Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba

Still-life with Oranges

oil on canvas • 54 x 68 cm
  • Rafael Romero Barros - 30 May 1832 - 2 December 1895 Rafael Romero Barros 1863

Rafael Romero Barros was a Spanish painter who often worked in the Costumbrismo style. Costumbrismo (sometimes anglicized as Costumbrism) is the literary or pictorial interpretation of local everyday life, mannerisms, and customs, primarily in the Hispanic scene, and particularly in the 19th century. Costumbrismo is related both to artistic realism and to Romanticism, sharing the Romantic interest in expression as against simple representation and the romantic and realist focus on a precise representation of particular times and places, rather than of humanity in the abstract. It is often satiric and even moralizing, but unlike mainstream realism does not usually offer or even imply any particular analysis of the society it depicts. When not satiric, its approach to quaint folkloric detail often has a romanticizing aspect. 

Barros works, especially the later canvases, are classified as Costumbrista, although they often lack the anecdotal character typical of the genre. Many show the influence of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo; we see this influence in today's beautiful still life. Barros follows the conventional scheme of placing the fruit on a table in front of a wall but over it there is a window that opens to the outside, which gives this amazing effect of the shadow and light play.

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P.S. It's the scent of orange in the wintery air! Do you smell it already? See the best portraits with oranges here! <3