Majo
1876. Oil on canvas.Not on display
Represented full-length in a cocky and defiant pose, the man is dressed in the characteristic clothing of the majos: a jacket embroidered with tassels, knee-length trousers, stockings and slippers, wrapping himself in a colourful cape, and covering his head with a bicorn and a hairnet to gather his hair, which peeks out from behind his neck. With a seemingly distracted look, he poses akimbo while smoking a cigarette, under the grill shed of a picnic area, on the outskirts of Madrid, from which several palisades built next to a humble farmhouse can be seen. Among those palisades, a group of "chisperos" moves towards the background, as well as the "manola" who walks akimbo with her back to the viewer, dressed in bright red.
This small canvas is very representative in terms of depicting characters and costumbrist scenes to which Lizcano dedicated his career, and in which the artist shows his skills, not only as a very acute capturer of the types in their most picturesque and topical aspect, but also in the representation of the environment in which they develop. That is why the background here, apparently unimportant, has such a generous development compared with the proportions of the figure.
The linearity of the profiles and the flatness of the colouring, spread out in large uniform areas, are testimony to the painter´s essentially draughtsman-like training. Although, on this occasion, he demonstrates an unusual chromatic richness in the striking clothing of the majo, treated with a sense of volume that makes him stand out visibly from the background that is extremely thin and flat.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Pintura española del siglo XIX: del neoclasicismo al modernismo: obras maestras del Museo del Prado y colecciones españolas, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Cooperación Cultural, 1992, p.168
