Why it matters
Young women dressed as peasants sleep in a cramped third-class train compartment, watched by an old woman in black: the procuress. Sorolla's discreet denunciation of forced prostitution was part of the vogue for social realism.
Did you know?
- It was painted in 1894 and signed in 1895.
- It won an award at the Paris Salon of 1897.
- Some Catholic critics said he had stained his brush 'with the soot of brothels'.
Based on the French Wikipedia article Traite des blanches (Sorolla) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
