Peasant Woman with Closed Eyes
1874
Medium
etching on Japanese paper
Dimensions
plate: 8.7 × 7 cm (3 7/16 × 2 3/4 in.) sheet: 17.8 × 13.2 cm (7 × 5 3/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of James A. Bergquist, Boston, in honor of Shelley R.Langdale
Accession Number
2020.149.23
Art Historical Context
Wilhelm Leibl's *Peasant Woman with Closed* (1874) is a poignant etching on Japanese paper, showcasing the German artist's mastery of intimate portraiture. Captured in a compact plate size of 8.7 × cm, the work depicts a serene rural figure with eyes softly shut, inviting viewers into a moment of quiet introspection. Leibl, a key figure in 19th-century German Realism, often turned to everyday peasant subjects, rendering them with unflinching honesty and emotional depth amid the era's growing interest in the working class. Etching, a precise intaglio technique involving acid-bitten lines on a...
About the Artist
Wilhelm Leibl · 1844–1900
Wilhelm Leibl (1844–1900) was the foremost German Realist painter of the nineteenth century, a figure who dedicated his career to an uncompromising fidelity to observed reality at a time when idealized academic painting still dominated official taste. Born in Cologne, he studied at the Munich Academy under Karl von Piloty, but the decisive influence on his development came from his encounter with ...