Portrait of a Girl
1838. Oil on canvas.Not on display
Romanticism found in childhood a motif of inspiration in keeping with its ideals of the expression of feelings unimpeded by the passage of time and the imprint of experience, which erased natural candour. The Sevillian artist Antonio María Esquivel, the trailblazer of the Romantic movement, knew how to express this naivety. This work is an example of what was said before. It depicts a smiling girl, who leans her little body on the arm of an armchair to prevent the weight of the wheel she is holding in her left hand from falling. Her blue eyes sparkle on her little round face, and her blushing cheeks add colour to her ivory visage. Her body is characterised by a diagonal line from right to left. Her light green dress attracts the viewer’s gaze with the contrast with the red of the curtains in the background and the upholstery of the armchair. This red-green chromaticism is repeated in the pieces in the ring. In addition, the artist even reveals a glimpse of a talent worthy of a miniaturist in the outline of the earring hanging from one of the little girl’s ears
Arte en Canarias Siglos XV-XIX. Una Mirada Retrospectiva, Islas Canarias, Viceconsejeria de Cultura y Depor, 2001, p.106-107 (T.II)
