La copla

This painting shows popular characters in typical dresses, inside a tavern playing the copla, a traditional Spanish poetic genre. This composition, exhibits popular stereotypes, references to daily life, and social criticism. It is representative of the costumbrismo genre. / Foreign intellectuals and travellers played a fundamental role in making Spain the Romantic country par excellence. These unconventional painters adapted the vision and repertoire of Andalusian costumbrism establishing an iconography that would last throughout the century. Andalusian artists, such as Manuel Cabral Bajarano, continued with this tradition and special attention was paid to the common people as representatives of the traditional and the authentic. The painters from Seville did these paintings almost in a series, to meet the demand of foreigners and the bourgeoisie—new customers who enjoyed the picturesque scenes.