Label TextSix young women and one dog relax in a forest setting. The bright blues, pinks, crimson, and gold notes of their costumes and accessories lead the eye through the pyramid of bodies. The painting’s title is ironic: if these women are gypsies—people of Romany descent who lived nomadic lifestyles in Western Europe—their social standing is far from royalty. In nineteenth-century France, collectors enjoyed scenes of Others: people of different ethnic, racial, and geographic communities depicted as exotic artistic contrasts to their own privileged lives. These artworks were not about the actual worlds of their subjects, but rather how artists and patrons imagined them.
Born in France to Spanish parents, Narcisse Díaz de la Peña trained as a porcelain painter. He became best known for landscapes inspired by the great forest of Fontainebleau, as well as fantasy scenes such as this painting.
(William Keyse Rudolph, 2018)