Circle of FEDERICO DE MADRAZO Y KUNTZ (Rome, 1815... Lot 47

Circle of FEDERICO DE MADRAZO Y KUNTZ (Rome, 1815 - Madrid, 1894). "Portrait of a Knight belonging to the Order of Santiago", c. 1850. Oil on canvas. It presents slight jumps in the painting. Measurements: 101 x 82 cm; 140 x 100 cm (frame). Oval portrait whose protagonist is shown to the spectator through a long bust, and very slightly turned because in spite of his posture, his rigidity stands out, which seems to give him a certain frontality with respect to the spectator. The most notable feature of his figure is his clothing, where we can see the large cross that indicates his membership of the order of Santiago. Proud of his rank, he wears a white cloak which highlights the vermilion of his cross and therefore his social status. A characteristic - In this portrait, as in the rest of Federico de Madrazo's work, the artist emphasises the personality of the sitter, carrying out a psychological study of the model. He applied a short, precise brushstroke to the drawing, bringing luminosity to the flesh tones. The son of the painter José de Madrazo, who was also in Rome serving Charles IV in exile, Federico de Madrazo moved with his family to Madrid when his father was appointed court painter to Ferdinand VII in 1819. Shortly afterwards the Royal Museum of Paintings was inaugurated, an institution that was to play a key role in Federico de Madrazo's life. During his childhood and youth he visited it frequently with his father, who was in fact responsible for the museum's lithographic establishment from 1826 and its director from 1838 to 1857. A precocious painter, Federico de Madrazo joined the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts as an academician of merit at the age of sixteen. During his youth he founded the magazine "El Artista" with his brother Pedro, which was an important Romantic novelty and in which Federico was responsible for the illustrations. In 1832 he took a scholarship to Paris to study painting with Ingres, a friend of his father's. There he acquired a Romantic style in the style of his father. There he acquired a romantic style in the French manner. In 1840 he continued his training in Rome, where he came into contact with the Nazarenes and in particular with Overbeck, which strengthened his drawing skills, already important in his style thanks to what he had learned from his father and Ingres. An illustrative work of this Nazarene influence on Madrazo is Las Marías en el sepulcro ("The Marys at the Sepulchre"). Two years later he returned to Spain, having become a painter of great prestige, much sought after as a portraitist by the Madrid aristocracy. He was Queen Isabella II's court painter and was the great official portraitist of the time. His portraits were characterised by the simplicity and naturalness of his models, and by a distant serenity, intimately linked to Romantic sentiment. He was also director of the Museo del Prado, a post he held, albeit on an interrupted basis, for thirty years until his death. He also directed the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He had a brilliant career as a history painter and, especially, as a portraitist, achieving great prestige in the artistic circles not only of Madrid but also of Paris and Rome. His production evolved from a painting dominated by purism of line and painstaking detail towards a more fluid and spontaneous technique, with greater expressive depth. Federico de Madrazo is currently represented in the Museo del Prado, the Museo Nacional del Palacio de Versalles, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, the Fundación Lázaro Galdiano and the Museo Romántico in Madrid, among others.