A Woman with a Dog

Giacomo Ceruti

1740s · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

Ceruti was nicknamed “Pitocchetto” (the little beggar) due to his success painting sitters from the lower working class such as this woman, a maid carrying her employer’s dog. Candid and unidealized in her presentation, with her teeth visible, the woman would have struck contemporary viewers as unrefined, but her direct stare and confidently outstretched hand lend her an unusual degree of dignity. The spoiled dog, meanwhile, lampoons the gap between the maid’s circumstances and her employers’ comforts. A subtle play of pinks, whites, and greens further endows the subject with an elegance typically reserved for depictions of more socially elevated women.

Artist

Giacomo Ceruti

Date

1740s

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, 1930