Tickling

'Tickling,' painted by Malhoa in 1904, belongs to his series of genre scenes depicting Portuguese popular life with an unsentimental directness that made him both beloved and occasionally controversial. The subject—playful physical interaction between figures—belonged to the innocent end of genre painting, suggesting the warmth and spontaneity of popular leisure. Malhoa had built his reputation on images of rural and coastal Portuguese life, and works like this one extended that project to domestic leisure. The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes holds the work in its survey of Portuguese naturalism.

The genre scene's success depends on convincing figural interaction—the poses and expressions must communicate the playful subject without theatrical exaggeration. Malhoa's assured naturalist technique renders the figures' physical engagement with the same directness he applied to his most celebrated social subjects.