Waterseller of Seville, Velazquez: Analysis

<html> <head> <title>Waterseller of Seville, Velazquez: Analysis</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="description" content="Waterseller of Seville by Velazquez (1618-22): Interpretation of Spanish Baroque Genre Painting (Bodegon)"> <meta name="keywords" content="Waterseller of Seville, Velazquez, Bodegon, Spanish Baroque Genre Painting, Apsley House, Wellington Museum, Uffizi Gallery"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> <div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script> <table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr> <td> <p><font face="Verdana" size="4"><b>The Waterseller of Seville (1618-22) by Velazquez</b><br> </font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><i>Interpretation of Spanish Baroque Genre Painting (Bodegon)</i><br> <font face="Verdana" size="4"><b><a href="../site/search.htm">MAIN A-Z INDEX</a></b></font></font></p> <div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/waterseller-of-seville.htm" data-width="450" data-show-faces="true" data-send="true"></div> <p><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/" class="pin-it-button" count-layout="none"><img src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" alt="Pin it" / ></a> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script></p> </td> </tr> </table> <hr width="750" size="1"> <table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr> <td width="200" valign="top"> <p><font face="Arial" size="2"><img src="../images-oils/velazquez-water.jpg" width="200" height="270"><br> The Waterseller of Seville<br> By Diego Velazquez.<br> Considered to be one of the<br> <a href="../genres/genre-paintings-greatest.htm">greatest genre paintings</a> of<br> the Spanish Baroque.</font></p> </td> <td width="524" valign="top"> <h1><font face="Verdana" size="4">The Waterseller of Seville (1618-22)</font></h1> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><b>Contents</b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="#description">Description</a><br>  <a href="#background">Background</a><br>  <a href="#analysis">Analysis of The Waterseller of Seville</a><br>  <a href="#baroquepaintings">Interpretation of Other Baroque Paintings</a></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><b><a name="description"></a>Description</b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">Name: The Waterseller of Seville (1618-22)<br> Artist: <a href="../old-masters/velazquez.htm">Diego Velazquez</a> (1599-1660)<br> Medium: Oil on canvas<br> Genre: <a href="../genres/genre-painting.htm">Genre painting</a> (bodegon)<br> Movement: <a href="../history-of-art/spanish-baroque.htm">Spanish Baroque Art</a><br> Locations: Apsley House, London; Uffizi Florence; Private Collection</font></p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">For the meaning of other celebrated masterpieces,<br> please see: <a href="index.htm"><b>Famous Paintings Analyzed</b></a> (1250-1800).</font></p> </blockquote> </td> </tr> </table> <hr width="750" size="1"> <table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr> <td width="200" valign="top"> <p><font face="Arial" size="2"><b><font color="#FF0000"> </font></b></font><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ArtEncyclopedia" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="../images/facebookimage.jpg" width="80" height="80" border="0"></a></p> </td> <td width="524" valign="top"> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><b><a name="background"></a>Background</b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">Blessed with a prodigious talent that would make him the leader of <a href="../history-of-art/spanish-painting.htm">Spanish painting</a> during the 17th century, the 23-year old Seville-born Velazquez settled in Madrid where his extraordinary <a href="../genres/portrait-art.htm">portrait art</a> secured him the position of painter to King Philip IV. In due course he would dazzle his contemporaries with some of the <a href="../history-of-art/best-baroque-paintings.htm">best Baroque paintings</a> in Spain, including: <i><a href="christ-crucified.htm">Christ Crucified</a></i> (1632), <i><a href="surrender-of-breda.htm">The Surrender of Breda</a></i> (1635), <i><a href="portrait-of-pope-innocent-x.htm">Portrait of Pope Innocent X</a></i> (1650), <i><a href="rokeby-venus.htm">The Rokeby Venus</a></i> (1647-51), and <i><a href="las-meninas.htm">Las Meninas</a></i> (1656). But as a young man in Seville he specialized in a type of sombre genre painting in the style of the <i>Bamboccianti</i>, known as <i>bodegones</i>. Focusing on subjects like beggars, street sellers, and soldiers at leisure, his works included: <i>The Lunch</i> (1617, Hermitage, St. Petersburg) and <i>Old Woman Frying Eggs</i> (1618, National Gallery of Scotland), as well as his series entitled <i>The Waterseller of Seville</i>. </font></p> <h1><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a name="analysis"></a>Analysis of The Waterseller of Seville by Velazquez</font></h1> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><i>The Waterseller of Seville</i> is the title given to three paintings by Velazquez, dating to the period before he left Seville for Madrid (16181622). One version is at Apsley House (Wellington Museum), London, the former home of the Duke of Wellington; another is in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence; and a third version remains in private hands. The most profound and monumental of the three - originally part of the Royal Spanish Collection - is in Apsley House; the earlier Uffizi <i>Waterseller</i> with his red hat is more of a parody; while the third version is overpowered by a lighting and colour scheme in which the innocent white face of the child has all but disappeared. In this article we focus on the Apsley House painting.</font></p> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr> <td width="200" valign="top"> <p> </p> </td> <td width="524" valign="top"> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr> <td width="200" valign="top"> <p> </p> </td> <td width="524" valign="top"> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">The subject of this masterpiece of <a href="../history-of-art/baroque.htm">Baroque art</a> is a street water-seller known as 'the Corsican of Seville' who, according to written accounts of the time, wore a smock with holes in it, the better to show off his skin sores to passers-by. But in this incredibly calm and quiet picture, Velazquez gives him the appearance of a saint or monk, who is almost unaware of the people around him, and who has a faraway look in his eyes that suggests a profound acceptance of life.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">He has two customers: a young boy standing next to him, and a young man partly obscured by background shadow. (His figure has faded with time; he is more visible in the Uffizi version). The waterseller passes a freshly poured glass of water to the boy, without looking at him. It is a bright, clean glass with a black fig inside it to freshen the taste of the water. The boy himself - whose young white face offers a sharp contrast to the seller's ageing brown features - also averts his gaze out of respect for the age and poverty of the street-seller. In the foreground we can see the seller's large ceramic pots of water - rendered like a <a href="../genres/still-life-painting.htm">still life painting</a> - whose lines echo those on his face. It is the worn-out face of someone who has spent a lot of time standing on hot and dusty street corners - a sentiment reinforced by the earthy browns and ochres of the artist's <a href="../colour-in-painting.htm">colour</a> scheme. </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">Nowhere is Velazquez's respect for the poor better illustrated that in this portrait of a simple street-seller, whose situation is ennobled by the light falling on him and by his white, shroud-like undershirt. Velazquez was strongly influenced by the radical Italian painter <a href="../old-masters/caravaggio.htm">Caravaggio</a> (1571-1610), and so makes the most of <a href="../painting/chiaroscuro.htm"><i>chiaroscuro</i></a> to model his subjects and <a href="../painting/tenebrism.htm">tenebrism</a> to focus the viewer's attention. But he gives the work a down-to-earth feel which is more akin to <a href="../genres/genre-painting-dutch-realist-school.htm">Dutch Realist genre painting</a> (the Bamboccianti hailed from Holland and Flanders) rather than the more dramatic <a href="../history-of-art/caravaggism.htm">Caravaggism</a>. Velazquez has no desire to idealize his subject - on the contrary, he tries to capture it in all its imperfections. Nonetheless, he manages to imbue the waterseller with a timeless dignity and the scene with a monumental sense of calm. Other <a href="../history-of-art/spanish-baroque-artists.htm">Spanish Baroque artists</a> painted <i>bodegones</i>, notably the Seville-born <a href="../old-masters/murillo-bartolome-esteban.htm">Murillo</a> (1618-82), but his works tended to be little more than sentimental street scenes.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><b><a name="baroquepaintings"></a>Interpretation of Other Baroque Paintings</b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="conversion-on-the-way-to-damascus.htm">Conversion on the way to Damascus</a> (1601) by Caravaggio.<br> Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="descent-from-the-cross-rubens.htm">Descent from the Cross (Rubens)</a> (1612-14)<br> Cathedral of our Lady, Antwerp.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="judith-beheading-holofernes.htm">Judith Beheading Holofernes</a> (1620) by Artemisia Gentileschi.<br> Uffizi Gallery, Florence.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="abduction-of-the-sabine-women.htm">Abduction of the Sabine Women</a> (1634-5) by Nicolas Poussin.<br> Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="et-in-arcadia-ego.htm">Et in Arcadia Ego</a> (1637) by Nicolas Poussin.<br> Louvre, Paris.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="bathsheba-holding-king-davids-letter.htm">Bathsheba Holding King David's Letter</a> (1654) by Rembrandt.<br> Louvre, Paris.</font></p> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr> <td width="200" valign="top"> <p> </p> </td> <td width="524" valign="top"> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr> <td> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> For more Spanish Baroque genre paintings, see: <a href="../index.htm">Homepage</a>.</font></p> <hr size="1"> <p align="center"><a rel="author" href="https://profiles.google.com/115076279462378566554#115076279462378566554"> <img src="http://www.google.com/images/icons/ui/gprofile_button-16.png" width="16" height="16"></a></p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="1"><b>ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART EDUCATION<br> © visual-arts-cork.com. 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Waterseller of Seville, Velazquez: Analysis