Prominent in academic art circles in Spain in the first half of the twentieth century, Álvarez de Sotomayor successfully unified classical realism with the French romantic influence prevailing at the time. Such was his influence that he was appointed director of the Prado Museum on two occasions, and also a member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid.

This is a superb example of the Galician subjects favoured by Sotomayor on his return from Chile. His works of this period combine a taste for balanced composition and a harmonious palette with the depiction of regional characters and landscapes, in this case from the area of Las Mariñas, in Lugo, a place Sotomayor frequented at the time.

As is customary in his painting, the artist places a figure close up in the foreground, against a landscape rendered with a naturalist treatment reminiscent of Flemish painting, a key influence throughout his career.

The sober palette of greens, browns and bluish tones contrasts with the reds in the young woman’s shawl and her delicate features. In what is a very modern composition, her raised arms hold a large basket, of which we can only see the bottom. Here the artist depicts the prototype of the Galician woman: light-skinned, prominent cheekbones, fair hair and blue eyes, and imbues her with a pensive and melancholic air.