The Museo del Prado in the National Lottery Draws

1993, ‘Spanish Painting and Sculpture’. ‘The Painter Francisco de Goya’, made in 1826 by Vicente López, portraitist at the court of Ferdinand VII. Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid. 33.4 x 21.6 cm.

Goya was eighty years old when Vicente López painted him. This picture, intended to hang in the Royal Painting Museum, as the Prado was known at the time, is the most famous likeness of the Aragonese artist and one of López’s finest portraits. He managed to give the old painter’s face an expressive of vibrant vitality, despite his solemn pose.

1972, ‘Children in Spanish Art’. Illustration: Esquivel. ‘Portrait of a Boy’ (copy). (Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina, Antonio María, ‘Manuel Flores Calderón’, Museo del Prado). 32.5 x 22 cm.

Esquivel combined the traditional Spanish palette of white, black, red and grey with the elegant refinement of English children’s portraiture to achieve a truly admirable result. Here he once again proved his mastery of the genre’s tricks and tools, bringing his impressive technical skill to bear on the description of the child’s attire—painstakingly capturing the decorative details of the braces and the gloss of the patent leather shoes—as well as on the modelling of his hands and the soft sheen of his fingernails.

1960, ‘Women in Spanish Painting’. Illustration: ‘Girl with a Parrot’ (detail); A. Esquivel. (Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina, Antonio María, ‘Rafaela Flores Calderón’, Museo del Prado). 51x36 cm.

The pendant to the previous painting of Manuel Flores Calderón, this portrait of the family’s eldest daughter, Rafaela, denotes a more decorative intent, as was customary in female portraits, emphasised by the colourful details of the bird and garden flowers. In this case, Esquivel took special pains over the contouring of the girl’s arms, the subtle chiaroscuro on her neck and, above all, capturing the tactile qualities of the translucent frock (which allows us to see the underskirt), the gleam of metal and the parrot’s plumage, all depicted with the glossy, brilliant brushwork and incredibly meticulous attention to detail that characterised this artist at his finest.

1960, ‘Women in Spanish Painting’. Illustration: ‘The Marchioness of Montelo.’ Federico Madrazo. (Madrazo y Kuntz, Federico de, ‘María Dolores Aldama, Marchioness of Montelo’, Museo del Prado). 51 x 36 cm.

The sitter, known for hosting intellectual gatherings at her home and her fondness for writing, is elegantly attired. The soft lighting accentuates the whiteness of her face and hands. Although it was painted in Paris, this portrait reveals the powerful influence that Velázquez and Goya had on Madrazo, particularly apparent in the elegance of the lady’s pose and the black tints of her gown.

1993, ‘Spanish Painting and Sculpture’. ‘Amalia de Llano y Dotres, Countess of Vilches’, painted in 1853 by Federico Madrazo y Kuntz. Museo Nacional del Prado. Casón del Buen Retiro. Madrid. 33.3 x 21.6 cm.

The subject, a monarchic writer, distinguished horsewoman and personal friend of the artist, stands out in the gloomy room as she poses in a striking armchair. This enormously attractive and alluring portrait, with its obvious French influence, recalls the aesthetic of Ingres’s style and is far removed from the sombre Spanish tradition. Madrazo deliberately emphasised the thirty-two-year-old lady’s beauty, youth, seductive gaze and porcelain-white skin. Her attire and attitude—head slightly tilted to one side and propped on her right hand—only heighten her sensuality.

1993, ‘Spanish Painting and Sculpture’. ‘Nude Old Man in the Sun.’ Canvas painted by Mariano Fortuny (circa 1873), held by the Museo Nacional del Prado in the Casón del Buen Retiro. Madrid. 6.7 x 10.7 cm.

The influence of Jusepe de Ribera, drawn from the Prado’s copy of his Saint Andrew, provided a solid foundation for this sunlit study. Fortuny captured the old man’s anatomy with consummate skill and made original use of colour and light, developed particularly in studies from life made during his time in Granada from 1870 to 1872.