An old woman frying eggs (The old cook). Diego Velázquez
1618, oil on canvas, 105 × 119 cm
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland
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Eine alte Frau brät Eier (Die alte Köchin). Diego Velázquez
um 1618, Öl auf Leinwand, 105 × 119 cm
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland
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See also : Egg, Paintings, Drawings
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Old Woman Frying Eggs is a genre painting by Diego Velázquez, produced during his Seville period. The date is not precisely known but is thought to be around the turn of 1618 before his definitive move to Madrid in 1623. It is now in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. Velázquez frequently used working-class characters in early works like this one, in many cases using his family as models; the old woman here also appears in his Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (1618).
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Like other early works by the artist, it shows the influence of chiaroscuro, with a strong light source coming in from the left illuminating the woman, her utensils and the poaching eggs, while throwing the background and the boy standing to her right into deep shadow. Here the chiaroscuro is very intense, so much so that it would be impossible to see the wall at the bottom of the painting but for the basket hanging from it; it simultaneously manages to combine the murky darkness and high contrasts of light and shadow with the use of subtle hues and a palette dominated by ochres and browns. The composition is organised as an oval with the middle figures in the nearest plane, thus drawing in the viewer.
The realism is nearly photographic and shows everyday plates, cutlery, pans, pestles, jugs and mortars, capturing the special shine on a glass surface and the light's play on the melon carried by the boy. The boiling pan is particularly well-captured, with its spitting oil and the whites of the eggs. Velázquez also worked particularly hard on the detail of the two figures's hands.
External links
Velázquez , exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Old Woman Frying Eggs (see index)
