Italian school (XX) - Lavandaia

The painting depicts a laundress at work, caught in profile while she washes clothes near a red bucket. The work is executed with an oil painting technique rich in material contrasts and chiaroscuro, typical of the twentieth century, and features a signature in the lower left that seems to read 'S. Maraldi'. The intimate atmosphere and the framing recall scenes of daily life and social realism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a theme widely explored by both international artists and by exponents of Italian genre painting.