Girls at a Window

Windows and balconies as framing devices for female figures were among the most popular subjects in nineteenth-century Spanish and European genre painting, connecting the viewer to the models through a threshold that implied both proximity and separation. Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta painted this subject in 1875 for the New York market — the Metropolitan Museum acquisition places it firmly in the context of American collector taste for Spanish genre work that was vigorous in the 1870s. Raimundo's Paris training and cosmopolitan network made him well positioned to supply this market with works that combined Spanish color and vitality with French technical polish. The window format had particular associations with Spanish painting, echoing Murillo's celebrated beggar-boy subjects as well as Goya's majas on a balcony — a pedigree that sophisticated American buyers recognized and valued.

The window or balcony frame provides a strong geometric structure within which the figures are set. Raimundo exploits the contrast between the relatively dark interior behind the figures and the exterior light falling on them, creating an interior-exterior dialogue that is both compositionally interesting and technically challenging.