Juan Perea
1839. Oil on canvas.Not on display
This work is a bust-length portrait, against a very dark neutral background. The subject wears a black frock coat with a velvet collar and a tie knotted around his neck. He has a young, sharp face, with moustache and hair covering his ears, and he is turning to look at the viewer.
It was painted in Paris in 1839, as its signature attests. This is one of the most interesting portraits of Federico de Madrazo´s second French period. Although the product of a somewhat harsh, hurried drawing and rigid modelling of the volumes, the artist shows in the figure´s head a curious influence of Spanish Baroque painting, especially of Ribera. This is evident in the thickly impastoed, juicy flesh tones, especially on the forehead, which is quite different from the smoothness of the shiny, silky hair. He also illuminates the figure in stark contrast to the darkness of the background and the costume.
It is traditionally considered to be the model used by Federico for his work Godfrey of Bouillon, proclaimed King of Jerusalem, which is now in the Palace of Versailles. González identifies him as a draughtsman and engraver –bearing the same name– who was living in Paris at the time, but there is no information about him. There are only two known people with this surname, Alfredo and Daniel Perea y Rojas, whose biographies are recorded by Ossorio. They are brothers of Julia Perea, wife of the engraver Bernardo Rico, who bequeathed the painting to the State. All of them are sons of the portrayed figure.
Díez, José Luis, Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz (1815-1894), Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 1994, p.164 nº12
