The peasant girl

The painting is a portrait of a peasant girl with a sweet bu shy gaze, who holds the stick in her hand with which she presumably leads the animals. The setting is that of the Roman countryside. The canvas represents one of the replicas of the painting that came commissioned by the Savoy Court to the painter. The original version of the painting was probably commissioned by Queen Margherita, wife of King Umberto II, for her apartment and it is still located in the Quirinal Palace in Rome. The subject of a shepherd and peasant girl sitting on the grass was very popular in the second half of the Italian 19th century. However, Barilli doen't use this subject is not used as a denunciation of the welfare state, but only as a poetic testimony of a historical era. There is no sadness, but only sweetness.