The complex undertaking of tracking the long-term loans made by the Museo Nacional del Prado throughout its history, the so-called “Prado disperso” (currently “Prado extendido”), has now been enriched by the location of a portrait of Leopoldo O’Donnell by Raimundo de Madrazo (1841-1920), which in 1920 was loaned to Tetouan, to the Spanish High Commissariat in Morocco. The end of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco in 1956 and the uncertainty about the true authorship of the work—repeatedly attri

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.

María del Carmen Terry Dorticós (around 1856–Madrid, 1926) was the daughter of Tomás Terry Adán and Teresa Dorticós y Gómez de Leys. She married Guillermo de Perinat y Ochoa, from Seville, who died in 1895 and who was administrator of Rentas Reales de Cienfuegos, Cuba. She was granted the title of 1st Marchioness of Perinat in gratitude for her charitable services on 6 March 1893, after her portrait was completed.

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 profound realism that characterizes the work of Raimundo Madrazo. It´s best representation here is t

Oblivious to vindications of the intellectual and spiritual dimension of women, Raimundo de Madrazo continued to explore the sophistication of their external appearance, adjusting his portraits of his female clients to a fashion that called amidst the rise of the Suffragette movement for a return to the values and aesthetics of the eighteenth century. It was especially successful among the women of American high society, who dressed up in Versaillesque court costumes to project an anachronistic

This is a bust portrait of a man whose face looks like that of someone in their early twenties, with strong, angular features. He has full hair, bushy eyebrows, a moustache and a goatee. He wears a frock coat, waistcoat and bow tie, and his gaze is fixed on the viewer. The name of the artist portrayed in this canvas by Raimundo de Madrazo in Paris had been a mystery ever since the painting was acquired in 1920 by the Museo de Arte Moderno for its artists’ gallery. It was purchased under the ambi

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.

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 queen assented to the creation and display of a portrait gallery that would represent all the preced

Preceding other Spanish painters such as Sorolla and Zuloaga, who acquired great renown as portraitists in Madrid and Paris and later painted several portraits in the United States of America, Raimundo de Madrazo travelled to this country on several occasions. He then painted portraits of the great world of New England, including this one, executed in 1899 in New York. Two years earlier, he had made his first trip to that city and the work was exhibited at the Ochme Gallery. In 1898 and 1899 he

This portrait is one of the most beautiful examples of the great actress María Guerrero’s (1867-1928) lifelong obsession with her own image. She began having her portrait painted by the most famous painters of her time while still an infant. This fixation was favored by her father’s friendship with many of those artists, and as a result, the Museo del Prado has several splendid likeness of her besides this one, including Emilio Sala’s 1878 portrait of the actress at the age of 10 (P4188)

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 criticism -the Goncourt brothers cruelly and baselessly alluded to the color of Guadalupe’s skin to rei

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.

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 Errazu legacy accepted by Royal Order of 13 December 1904.

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 un collar de corales que componen la tipología concreta del ajuar femenino gitano. Su mirada intros

La obra es un estudio del natural para un retrato de gran tamaño 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. La forma ovalada de la cabeza se resalta con armonía por el peinado, recogido. Los ojos se animan gracias a los toques de blanco en las pupilas recurso que, como su padre Federico, dominaba Raimundo de Madrazo. La mirada, que no se fija en el espectador, muestra melancolía. La sobriedad

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.

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.