English school; circa 1700. "Portrait of a gentleman".... Lot 42

English school; circa 1700. "Portrait of a gentleman". Oil on canvas. Presents repainting and restorations. Measures: 186 x 83,5 cm. With a penetrating look the protagonist of the scene fixes his eyes on the spectator. His serious face of pink flesh tones, maintains a gesture of dignity that harmonizes with the posture adopted by the portrayed. His clothing, apparently casual, shows both the artist's virtuosity in reflecting the texture of the velvet, as well as the purchasing power of the main protagonist. At the formal level, the precise brushstroke stands out, focused on an exaggerated detail; a very balanced composition thanks to its triangular structure; and a chromatism with tones arranged in such a way as to enhance the figure, especially the face, by the contrast between the neutral colors of the background and the warm ones in the foreground. The light plays a fundamental role, focusing the gaze from the first moment on the face of the portrayed, since it is the most illuminated area, and the shadows relegate the rest of the elements to a secondary position. In the 17th century, the panorama of European portraiture was varied and broad, with numerous influences and largely determined by the taste of both the clientele and the painter himself. However, in this century a new concept of portraiture was born, which would evolve throughout the century and unify all the national schools: the desire to capture the personality of the human being and his character, beyond his external reality and his social rank, in his effigy. During the previous century, portraiture had become consolidated among the upper classes, and was no longer reserved only for the court. For this reason, the formulas of the genre, as the seventeenth century progressed and even more so in the eighteenth century, would relax and move away from the ostentatious and symbolic official representations typical of the Baroque apparatus. On the other hand, the eighteenth century will react against the rigid etiquette of the previous century with a more human and individual conception of life, and this will be reflected in all areas, from the furniture that becomes smaller and more comfortable, replacing the large gilded and carved furniture, to the portrait itself, which will come to dispense, as we see here, of any symbolic or scenographic element to capture the individual instead of the character.