This watercolor wins the week for me, on a week when there are a number of things I am deeply in love with! So beautifully done (detail photos show how finely painted that radiant orange skirt, for example) and so mysterious feeling, with the empty, spare walled plaza giving me a de Chirico sort of mood. With a little research into the style of their veils, I've learned that these women are surely Peruvian tapada limeña (meaning “the covered one from Lima”)--with veils like this worn as expressions of female resistance to the authority of the Spanish colonial administration from the 16th to 19th century. (A physical manifestation of "hands off.") And, as was true to how these "manto" were worn, the front facing woman gazes back at us with a single exposed eye. (A precision point upon which everything else hinges.) And so I think this is marvelous not just as a stunning watercolor, but also as a embodiment of resistance. (And, too, as a provocation to  consider of the potential power embedded in the act of concealment; I love the thought of these 19th century Peruvian women attempting to claim a one way gaze for themselves.) Plus those incredibly delicate little feet! So wonderful.

7 15/16" x 5 7/16" in beautiful condition. I've found some later 18th-mid 19th century examples of both watercolors and engravings depicting veiled Peruvian women; my guess is this is 19th century European.