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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.
Born in 1784 in El Escorial, Fernando VII was Carlos IV eldest son by Maria Luisa. In 1815, after abolishing the Constitution, he reined as an absolute monarch. He appears wearing the symbols of his royal condition, with a purple, ermine-lined robe, and a scepter with the coat of arms of Castile and Leon in his right hand. The sash of the Order of Carlos III crosses his chest, and he also bears th
The Valencian painter Antonio Gomar (1853-1911), who specialised in landscapes and decorative compositions, is portrayed by his compatriot Sorolla at the age of 53. The work’s landscape format, influenced by photography, and which Sorolla reserved for portraits of family and friends, is indicative of how close he was to his model. Painted in the foreground, his body foreshortened to the left, and
An intensely sensual female nude that presents the figure in the form of a pearl enclosed in its box, the ocean, which may be an allusion to the birth of Venus. Presented at the Paris Salon of 1863, this work was one of the most appreciated female nudes of Second Empire Paris, despite the strong criticism it received as an exultantly erotic work lacking any moral modesty. Its first owner was the E
Fortuny’s predilection for beautifully colored and very carefully painted panels is perfectly exemplified by the present work, which reveals his mastery of tableautin, a type of painting that garnered considerable commercial success for artists such as Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), although the latter’s execution was much more meticulous and drawn. The Orientalist genre was also the ob
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
This portrait of María Guerrero, Sorolla’s neighbour and friend, is probably the finest and most expressive example of the eminent actress’s lifelong obsession with her own image. From childhood, she had herself portrayed by some of the most famous painters of her time, many of whom were friends of her father, the set designer Ramón Guerrero. María Guerrero grew up in a cultur
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.
These are instantaneous sketches taken directly from nature, here on the coast, in the French countryside, and in the mountains of Picos de Europa. Haes was a moving force in the transformation of landscape painting, bringing a completely new concept of the interpretation of Nature, with a realism that was sensitive to all elements. In all his landscapes, Haes very exactly captures the physical as
This work shows politician, poet, playwright and tutor to Queen Elizabeth II, Manuel José Quntana (Madrid, April 11, 1772- Madrid, March 11, 1857) on the day of his coronation in the Senate as Illustrious Poet (March 25, 1855).
Abused and raped by their husbands the Counts of Carrión, the daughters of El Cid –Doña Elvira and Doña Sol– were abandoned, bound and semi-naked, in a forest. In the background, the aggressors can be seen fleeing into a clearing. This episode, inspired by one of the most dramatic passages in the Romance del Cid, was very popular amongst nineteenth-century history painters, fo
María de la Concepción Serrano y Domínguez was the eldest child of General Serrano, the Duke of Torre. She was born in Havana in 1860, which her father was Commander in Chief of Cuba. In 1880, she married the second Count of Santovenia. She died in 1941 in Biarritz, her habitual residence. Rosales´ portrait shows a girl of eleven in a very gracious poise, secure in her social
Retrato de busto, el rostro ofrece amplia y despejada frente, con ojos que trasmiten un aire veladamente burlón, reforzado por esa boca entreabierta que parece iniciar una sonrisa, extenso bigote y perilla que buscan deshacer cierta tendencia a la redondez de los rasgos, y melena corta y amplia a ambos lados de la cabeza. Un rostro afable que se advierte también en el retrato conservado en el Círc
Emperor Nero accused his teacher, Seneca, of treason and ordered his execution. Scorning imperial power, the philosopher decided to take his own life. First he cut his veins and then he took poison. In the end, though, it was the vapors from a brazier that put an end to his suffering. The painting shows the moment when Seneca lies in the bathtub, surround by his weeping friends. The still-smoking
Mariano Fortuny Madrazo (Granada, 1871-Venecia, 1949) se autorretrata en busto, de frente y hasta los hombros, a la edad de setenta y seis años. Aparece vestido con la bata que usaba habitualmente para trabajar, bajo la que asoma el cuello de la camisa. El artista, que hizo un análisis de las avejentadas facciones de su cara, presenta el pelo blanco todavía abundante y una poblada barba cana que o
Louise Amour Marie de Bouillé, the wife of the French ambassador in Madrid, is registered as a copyist at the Museo del Prado from November 1871 onwards. It must have been around then that she was portrayed by Federico de Madrazo in this delicate work, half-way between a life sketch and a small portrait, where the aristocrat is shown painting. Of Caribbean Creole descent, Louise was a multi
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
