As the years went by, the public was less and less interested in Costumbrismo, an art style which focused on custom and manners. Instead, people became increasingly interested by a closer and more sincere representation of the reality of a country, its people and their customs. Benlliure´s depiction is a good example of this. In this painting, four elderly peasants dressed in traditional costume are captured in a farmstead, chatting quietly around a jug of wine. The subjects are faithfully

It is the serenity and neat elegance of the figure which stands out in this self-portrait. Impeccably dressed he even wears a hat, a garment more suited to outdoors. His face sports a neat beard and a bushy, pointed moustache. As a self-portrait, it is clearly a glimpse of the habits and manners that define the gentleman. His gesture and bearing are those of a cosmopolitan, cultured and urbane man. He is the successful man whose standing has been recognised by his contemporaries. He has a tense,

Since Gustave Courbet, realist painters had been interested in the representation of clairvoyants and mediums, associated by art with feminine practices. Set inside a dark room, Benlliure’s work is a markedly tellurist image offering a visual connection between the supposed paranormal gifts of the protagonist and the world of the irrational, which in the early twentieth century was linked essentially to women.

This painting, in which Saint Telemachus is the main figure, is a work of more than thirty-five square metres. Saint Telemachus is a fourth-century Christian martyr who, through personal intervention, sought to put an end to the gladiatorial fights that took place in the Flavian Amphitheatre. The scene, set in an already ruined Colosseum, shows the appearance of the Saint carrying a cross. The crowd is gathered around him, creating a spectral vision of accentuated drama. The artist submitted the

A student of Francisco Domingo, Benlliure produced a wide variety of genre works. From a very young age he included in his repertoire works depicting military scenes. In most cases, they are devoid of the heroic or moralising character typical of other artists (García Peiró, J. in: José Benlliure Gil (1855–1937), Generalitat Valenciana, 2009, p. 24).