Alfonso XIII as a cadet
1901. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
In 1899, Pinazo performed the first studies from life for the portrait Alfonso XIII as a cadet, commissioned by the captain of the Valencian military after he was awarded the medal in that same year. The painting is signed and dated 1901. In this work, the painter combines the scenography of royalty – which is especially visible in the sumptuous palace setting – with the nearly frail image of an adolescent, mitigated by his own pose. The soon-to-be monarch is approximately the same age as the boy in Learning by heart (P004576) and epitomises an image of hopeful youth. The curtain appears as a symbol of royalty, and all the palace space both protects and shelters the figure of the soon-to-be king. As a tribute to Velázquez, Pinazo plays with the light effects and depth produced by the back door and side windows. The watercolour-like brushstrokes employed for the spatial arrangement and furniture reassert Pinazo’s style and aesthetic; he does not hold back in rendering his singular style, which is now visible in a more sinuous stroke outlining and defining objects, namely the tables, the armchair and the lamp.
The multiple suggestions implied in his works, considered in this portrait, recall a few names that go as far back in time as Tintoretto, Magnasco, Menzel, Boldini, Kokoschka or De Pisis; a summation of the past and an intuition that is the essence of Pinazo’s singularity.
Perez Rojas, Francisco Javier, Ignacio Pinazo 1849-1916: los inicios de la pintura moderna, Madrid, Fundacion Cultural Mafre Vida, 2005, p.208 nº 90
