The Churching of Women (La misa de parida)

The scene takes place inside a church, presided over by the crucifix on the altar situated on the right. A priest placed at the centre of the composition and facing the altar seems to be giving communion to a churchgoer. Behind him is the rest of the congregation. According to the title, this painting represents a "churching" or purification ritual, the first mass attended by a woman after childbirth. Light penetrates through the window in the upper left-hand section of the canvas.

There are various versions of this canvas which have been identified, the majority being larger in size and of a more complex composition. Some have been recognized as copies, such as that housed in the San Carlos Museum in Mexico, attributed to Eugenio Lucas; one in a private collection belonging to Federico Madrazo and painted by Mariano Fortuny; a canvas in the Castelar collection in Madrid; and that of the Galdiano Lázaro Museum, formerly attributed to Goya. Other versions can be found in the Kleinschmidt Collection in Cassel, the Municipal Museum of Vigo (painted on tinplate), the Collection of Ms. María Luisa Maldonado in Madrid, which comes from the collection of the Marquis of la Torrecilla (also on tinplate); and the Groult Collection in París, from the collection of Esteban Collantes.