The Chronological Series of the Kings of Spain was a museum project planned in 1847 by José de Madrazo to adorn four of the new rooms at the Real Museo de Pinturas (Royal Museum of Paintings), then under his direction. At the height of the confrontation between the supporters of Isabella II and the Carlists, who denied the sovereign’s right to occupy the throne because she was a woman, the
As the dedication indicates, this portrait reflects the close friendship between the artist and Eduardo Zamacois (1841-1871), his friend and fellow artist in Paris. Despite the portrait’s restrained, intimate nature, defined by its format and dark tonalities, the sitter is elegantly presented and enlivened by the red of his beret.
Benito Soriano Murillo (1827-1891) was an artist and deputy director of the Museo del Prado. He shared Raimundo de Madrazo and his family’s love of music, referred to by the guitar and piano. The elegant pose, characteristic of the French tradition that Madrazo assimilated in Paris, coexists here with the influence of Spanish portraiture and the style of the artist’s father, Federico de Madrazo.
Retratado de busto, su rostro, de rasgos recios y angulosos, parece representar unos veinte años. De abundante cabellera, cejas pobladas, bigote y perilla, viste levita, chaleco y corbata de lazo, fijando su mirada en el espectador.La identificación del artista retratado en París por Raimundo de Madrazo en este lienzo ha sido una verdadera incógnita desde que el cuadro fuera adquirido en 1920 por
This painting and its dedication demonstrate the friendship between Raimundo de Madrazo and Bernardo Rico (1825-1894), a leading wood engraver and the brother of the painter Martín Rico. The controlled, precise brushstroke on the face contrasts with the looser and more fluid handling of the background.
In this scene, set in the vicinity of Seville Cathedral, Madrazo deliberately echoes the peopled landscapes produced by his close friend, the Madrid painter Martín Rico; the main focus of the scene is a group of children playing, a device commonly used in Rico’s compositions.
In this popular scene, two people, one dressed in eighteenth century fashion, with a cape and two-cornered hat, are depicted in front of the Pavilion of Carlos V in the Gardens of the Alcázar of Seville. The presence of the man deliberately recalls the small genre scenes made popular by Madrazo’s brother-in-law, Mariano Fortuny, to whom this painting may be seen as a playful tribute.This is
Two little girls play with one of the swans in the pool of the Jardín de las Damas at the Real Alcázar in Seville. Madrazo displays here his extraordinary skill with colours, particularly in the rich range of greens that dominate much of the composition, and in the marked contrast between the strongly-lit whitewashed wall and the shady area behind the arches.
The eldest of six children born to Joaquín María de Errazu and Guadalupe Rubio de Tejada, Manuela was born in Querétaro (Mexico) in 1839. Her family, of Spanish origin, amassed a huge fortune through the industrial development of that Central-American country. When she was fifteen years old, her parents moved to the most exclusive neighborhood in Paris. There, despite some cri
A portrait of Aline Masson, Madrazo´s favorite model and the esthetic ideal of femininity in late-nineteenth-century bourgeois Paris. The white mantilla over a red embroidered shawl and the flowers in her hair link this work to the nineteenth-century French taste for Spanish things, a detail Madrazo emphasized in many of his works. This painting entered the Prado Museum as part of the Ramón
Aline Masson was Madrazo’s favourite model for genre paintings. Her heavy-lidded gaze and slightly defiant attitude convey the frivolous atmosphere of Paris, where Madrazo’s portraits met with great acclaim. Here, the artist displays his technical skill in using a reduced range of colours, applied with deft, confident brushstrokes.
Sobre un fondo cerúleo, de ejecución rápida y desenvuelta, destaca la figura de una gitana de medio cuerpo. Como corresponde al estereotipo racial femenino, es de rostro ovalado, labios carnosos, cabello negro ensortijado y grandes ojos negros. Cubre su talle un mantón rojo, floreado, y una mantilla negra que deja caer sobre sus brazos. Como aderezo, unos claveles en su pelo, zarcillos colgantes y
This work bears exceptional witness to the concurrence of Fortuny’s painting with that of his close friend, Raimundo de Madrazo. Begun by the former, it was completed after his death by the latter with a completely concordant style that does not, however, hide Madrazo’s own individuality. Fortuny had been living in Granada since the summer of 1870 and he spent the best days of his life there befor
After establishing himself in Paris as portrait painter to the elegant and cosmopolitan high society of his time, Raimundo de Madrazo cultivated a particularly abundant clientele among the great ladies of the French capital. A posterior trip to America allowed him to expand his client base to include the leading families of New York. In the 1870s, when Raimundo was beginning to make a place for hi
Aline Masson, the painter´s model, contemplates the signet -sealed envelope she holds in her right hand, which presumably arrived with the bouquet of flowers she holds in her left. The blue robe with cottony white edging gives the scene a homey feeling appropriate to the subject, but wisely used by the painter to bring out the young woman´s fine, pale skin. This work is approached in the style of
This masterpiece by Raimundo de Madrazo represents his mature style in a worldly portrait painted with a personality that transcends his varied and different influences. Made a year before he was awarded first prize at the Universal Exposition of 1878 in Paris, it reveals the confidence of maturity. Moreover, this is a portrait of a very close friend who was also an outstanding collector. Errazu p
La obra es, como indica la inscripción, un estudio del natural para un retrato de gran tamaño que, encargado en 1887 por el Ministerio de Estado, cuyo titular era Segismundo Moret, para que sirviera de modelo a los retratos oficiales de la reina, se conserva en la Embajada de España en París. En éste del Prado, la forma ovalada de la cabeza se resalta con armonía por el peinado, recogido. Los ojos
Madrazo shows his skill at bringing female sensuality to the fore in an intimate scene of daily toilette that recalls French Rococo. The various objects scattered on the floor have an evident erotic connotation, and so too does the nude, with soft transparencies and a profusion of vibrantly executed fabrics around her.