Testifying to the avant-gardism of Eduardo Viana’s production in this period, the theme of this painting – a set of small clay figures characteristic of Barcelos and a rag doll – is completely in tune with the interest that emerged in the first half of the 20th century in Europe for games and features synthesising popular traditions.
Eduardo Viana usually bought clay figurines in the Barcelos markets and would have introduced the subject to the circle of artists that was then forming around the Delaunays, who arrived in Portugal precisely in the summer of 1915. See, for example, the numerous jouets portugais produced after that by Sonia Delaunay or Amadeo de Souza Cardoso’s A Russa e o Fígaro (The Russian Woman and Le Figaro).