Interior of Muñoz Degrain's Valencia studio
1867. Oil on panel.Not on display
This cabinet painting is one of the most iconic of the Francisco Domingo works in the Museum. It depicts a musical evening at the studio of his good friend Antonio Muñoz Degrain (Valencia, 1840–Málaga, 1924). The two artists appear alongside four ladies in front of the great ‘Landscape at El Pardo, Mist rising’, a masterpiece of the genre by Muñoz Degrain’s early years, which is also kept in the Prado (P004518). Tradition states that Domingo himself painted the figures and the horse that appear in the foreground of this splendid canvas. Both artists are courting two of the young women, one of whom is playing the piano. Meanwhile, next to the painting and with their backs to the viewer, the other two women appear to be singing a barely visible score. The painting also demonstrates Domingo’s mastery at depicting interiors with small figures. He has the ability to splendidly combine the meticulous and descriptive attention to the different elements that adorn the painter´s studio without falling into miniaturist precocity. He wields extraordinary technical skill and has an acute observation in the handling of the light from the window, which bathes the gloom of the room in an intimate atmosphere. All these qualities would make Domingo Marqués one of the most popular Spanish masters of genre scenes in the following years. The painting is a tribute to his friend, who had been awarded the second medal at the National Exhibition of 1867, with the painting that appears in the scene. This is a work of a genre that Spanish painters of the 19th century hardly employed, scenes of social gatherings and evenings in painters´ or musicians´ studios, common in the bohemian and intellectual circles of artists and writers.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Maestros de la pintura valenciana del siglo XIX en el Museo, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Autoridad Portuaria, 1997, p.140-141
