Fall From a Balcony

This text and image are provided courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

oil painting of a woman holding a baby falling through the floor of a wooden balcony

The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, 1950-134-492

c. 1803 Oil on canvas 33 3/4 x 24 1/2 inches (85.7 x 62.2 cm) Mexican

What is happening in this painting? A woman in a red skirt holding a baby is falling through the floor of a wooden balcony. Dishes and bits of wood fly through the air. The same woman appears below, bending over the baby. Miraculously, the woman and the baby...

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