Old Woman Frying Eggs

Painting by Diego Velázquez

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Old Woman Frying Eggs

Spanish: Vieja friendo huevos
Artist| Diego Velázquez
Year| c. 1618
Medium| Oil on canvas
Dimensions| 100.5 cm × 119.5 cm (39.6 in × 47.0 in)
Location| National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

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. The painting is in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Velázquez frequently used working-class characters in early paintings 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). There is some dispute about what cooking process is actually depicted with some suggesting not frying but poaching, leading to an alternative title of the painting, Old Woman Cooking Eggs or Old Woman Poaching Eggs.

Old Woman Frying Eggs is considered to be one of the strongest of Velázquez's early works.[1] Like others, 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 reflections and the whites of the eggs. Velázquez also worked particularly hard on the detail of the two figures' hands.

## See also

[edit]

* List of works by Diego Velázquez

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Velázquez. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1989. p. 58\. ISBN 0870995545.

## External links

[edit]

* Velázquez , exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Old Woman Frying Eggs (see index)

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Diego Velázquez

List of works

Genre|

* The Lunch (c. 1617)
* Old Woman Frying Eggs (c. 1618)
* The Farmers' Lunch (1618)
* Three Musicians (1618)
* The Waterseller of Seville (1618–1622)
* The Kitchen Maid (1620–1622)
* The Needlewoman (c. 1635–1643)

History|

* The Triumph of Bacchus (1628–1629)
* Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan (1629)
* The Surrender of Breda (1634–1635)
* Mars Resting (1640)
* Rokeby Venus (c. 1647–1651)
* Female Figure (1648)
* Las Hilanderas (c. 1657)

Religious|

* Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (1618)
* Saint Paul (1618–1620)
* Adoration of the Magi (1619)
* Joseph's Tunic (1630)
* Temptation of St. Thomas (1632)
* Christ Crucified (1632)
* Coronation of the Virgin (c. 1641–1644)

Portraits|

* The Nun Jerónima de la Fuente (1620)
* Don Luis de Góngora (1622)
* Philip IV in Armour (after 1623)
* Count-Duke of Olivares (1624)
* The Infante Don Carlos (1626–1627)
* Maria Anna (1630)
* Philip IV in Brown and Silver (1630s)
* Portrait of a Man (c. 1630)
* Prince Balthasar Charles with a Dwarf (1631)
* Don Juan Mateos (1632–1633)
* Doña Antonia de Ipeñarrieta y Galdós and Her Son Don Luis (1634)
* Count-Duke of Olivares (1635)
* Prince Balthasar Charles as a Hunter (1635)
* Juan Martínez Montañés (1635–1636)
* Pablo de Valladolid (1636–1637)
* Lady with a Fan (1638–1639)
* Philip IV in Fraga (1644)
* Francisco Lezcano (1645)
* Pope Innocent X (1650)
* Juan de Pareja (1650)
* Mariana of Austria (1652)
* The Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain (1652–1653)
* Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Peach Dress (1653–1654)
* Las Meninas (1656)
* Infanta Margarita in a White and Silver Dress (1656)
* Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress (1659)
* Prince Philip Prospero (1659)
* Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress (1660)

Equestrian
portraits|

* Elisabeth of France (c. 1628–1636)
* Count-Duke of Olivares (1634)
* Margarita of Austria (1634)
* Philip III (1634–1635)
* Philip IV (1635–1636)
* Prince Balthasar Charles (1635)
* Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School (1636)

Jesters|

* Calabacillas (1626–1632)
* Don John of Austria (1632–1633)
* Barbarroja (1633)
* Calabacillas (1637–1639)
* Sebastián de Morra (c. 1645)
* Don Diego de Acedo (1645)

Landscapes|

* View of the Garden of the Villa Medici (c. 1630)

Portrayals|

* Statue of Velázquez (1899, Madrid)
* El ministerio del tiempo (television series)

Authority control databases: National |

* France
* BnF data

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