Woman from ciociaria

Painted in 1862 and now in an unspecified private or institutional collection, this depiction of a woman from the Ciociaria region belongs to the same tradition of Italian peasant genre as the earlier Ciocciara of around 1850. Rosales was in Rome on his Academy scholarship between 1857 and 1867, and the Ciociaria — the hill country southeast of Rome — was a favourite destination for painters seeking picturesque peasant subjects. The ciocciara's distinctive folk costume had been depicted by Camille Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's circle, and countless academic painters as an emblem of unspoiled regional culture. By his second treatment of the subject in 1862, Rosales brings a more mature eye to the subject: his handling is more confident, the figure more psychologically present, and the rendering of the complex layered costume more assured than in his earlier version.

The 1862 version shows a more developed Rosales technique than the earlier Ciocciara: freer brushwork, stronger tonal contrasts, and greater confidence in the construction of the figure's three-dimensional form. The elaborate folk costume — multiple layers of contrasting colours and textures — is handled with enjoyment of its visual complexity, each material differentiated through variation in handling. The figure stands with the composed, unself-conscious dignity that Rosales consistently found in his Italian peasant subjects.