Date: 1783

18th century

Dimensions: 15.25 x 23.25 in. (38.74 x 59.06 cm)

Object Type: Painting

Creation Place: Europe, Italy

Medium and Support: Oil on canvas

Credit Line: Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation via The Discovery Museum, Bridgeport, CT

Accession Number: 2009.01.10

On View: Bellarmine Hall Galleries

This type of whimsical painting, featuring peasants depicted amid a tranquil natural setting, was popular among elite audiences in the 18th century. The seated woman in the foreground appears to be about to nurse the young child climbing on her lap. Behind her, a woman with her skirts tied up around her calves walks toward a pair of men standing near the outcropping at the right; the men, stripped to the waist, are fishing in the small stream. On the left, two figures with their backs to the group head toward the town visible in the distance.

This painting was part of the group of works donated by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to the Museum of Art, Science and Industry in Bridgeport, CT in 1962. When that museum became the Discovery Museum in the early 1990's, the Kress paintings were transferred to Fairfield University, where they formed the core of what would become the Fairfield University Art Museum.