01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART - Julio Romero Torres' Samaritan Woman, With Footnotes - #128

Julio Romero Torres  (1874–1930)

Samaritan Woman, c. 1920

Oil on canvas

height: 108 cm (42.5 in); width: 88 cm (34.6 in)

Julio Romero de Torres Museum

This work shows the Biblical scene of Jesus Christ with the Samaritan woman and starts the series of religious works painted by Julio Romero de Torres.

Nevertheless, this work is the only example in which appears the face of Jesus in the shadows. However, the female figure, whose model was Conchita Castillo, has the leading role. ( I did not find any information about Conchita Castillo)

The Samaritan woman appears seated at the edge of a well, leaning on a copper pitcher. The figure of Jesus is almost hidden, surrounding the woman with his arms and his words. The painter focuses the light on the female figure and the pitcher, giving them the leading role and isolating them from the tenebrism of the background. Furthermore, Romero de Torres uses the composition to show his skills when depicting the clothing.

The copper objects are a constant element in the works of Romero de Torres. He introduced the copper, a metal with a long tradition in Córdoba, showing a popular element native of this region. This canvas was painted for his mother, that is why the painter never sold it. More on this painting

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink', you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." More on the Samaritan woman

Julio Romero de Torres (9 November 1874 – 10 May 1930) began to paint under the instruction of his father, the well-known Andalucian artist and teacher, Rafael Romero Barros. Whilst growing up and studying art, he was exposed to the exciting emergence of Realism, Impressionism and Symbolism, giving rise to a unique style in which he combined the Realist traditions of Gustave Courbet and Mariano Fortuny, the photographic portraiture of Federico de Madrazo and the Impressionism of Aureliano de Beruete, Dario de Regoyos and Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. His early career developed well and he was rewarded with a mention of honour at the 1895 National Exhibition went on to win third class medals in 1899 and 1904.

Romero de Torres once described himself as a 'painter from the soul of Andalucia’. In the present work we see how he focused upon subjects based on folklore, in particular 'la mujer morena’ or brown skinned beauty. The strongly drawn sitter leans elegantly on a glazed ceramic amphora. She gazes directly at the viewer in a calm and cool manner inviting admiration and interest. Her elegant draped clothing and jewellery contrast with the mundane task of gathering water, but the work is pervaded by a sense of nobility and timelessness.. More on Julio Romero de Torres

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