The Poultry Seller

The painting depicts a countryside female selling chicken, or perhaps eggs to a high class lady. A realist painting in nature, it was created by Giacomo Favretto, a prominent Italian painter. He was renowned for his genre style and realists painting. The shift towards capturing the daily lives of working class, labourers and people of low class came in the 18th century and prevailed in Italy. The realist paintings are characterised by painting rural population with natural light using bold patches of colours and unromanticized aspect of daily life, mainly focused on outdoor setting. One such example of realist painting is here, where a female woman is shown selling chicken, meat for consumption and eggs. A very subtle scenario at first but this artwork empowers women as a working-class member. A contradiction of class is shown, a woman in simple clothing wearing a hat and red scarf and on opposite, an elite woman assisted by another woman in the narrow lanes of Italy. The artist has used neutral shades of brown, light yellow and ochre to bring liveliness of the setting invoking a sense of warmth and domestic location. This artwork compels viewers to redefine the roles of women in society. When you look at this painting, it seems as if the scene is unravelling in front of us and we are a part of this rural market.