Countrywoman from Ílhavo

Suggested especially by the way of grasping mores, explored in the art and literature of the romantic generation, which he has always defended, Resende’s themes stand out for the taste of travel and the documental and expressive record of several regions of the country. His figures reflect a sentimentality, also present in his derisive historical compositions (“Camões saving the Lusíadas”), linked to a continuity of representation of Portuguese genre scenes by foreign painters, especially Roquemont, but also attesting the knowledge of a set of divulged lithographs of popular types from the Macphail collection.
Its peasant woman from Ílhavo, a tranquil image of an idealized ruralism, in a pause of popular daily life, meticulously described and iconographically detailed, stands out as an important work of the artist's production, considered an "outstanding painter" by Camillo.