

Teasing a Sleeping Girl
Gaspare Traversi (Italian, Neapolitan, ca. 1722–1770)
Oil on canvas
Gaspare Traversi (Italian, Neapolitan, ca. 1722–1770)
Oil on canvas
34 1/8 x 42 3/8 in. (86.7 x 107.6 cm)
Bequest of Harry G. Sperling, 1971 (1976.100.19)
Little is known of Traversi's career, but he was unquestionably the leading genre painter in eighteenth-century Naples. His pictures parodying the pastimes of the noble classes are particularly striking for their emphatic naturalism and biting wit. In this work, an old woman tickles a young girl who has fallen asleep holding a box of keepsakes on her lap.







