Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and 'Two Women at a Window'

'Two women at a window' (c.1655/1660) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo; National Gallery of Art, Washington 

I am extremely pleased that my first post of the year will be of a painting that I have loved ever since I heard of the Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Having spent a lot of time in Spain, mainly in the lovely province of Andalucía, I came to know this artist while visiting his birth town Sevilla and the beautiful Museo de Bellas Artes. Murillo is best known for his religious paintings, but this image above is quite a worldly scene. For details of the painting, click here. Murillo was born late December 1617 (no specific date is given), but baptised on the 1st of January, 1618, thus deserving this very first post. He became one of the most important Spanish Baroque painters of the seventeenth century.