LUIS TABERNER Y MONTALVO (Madrid, 1844-1900). "Meeting... Lot 15

LUIS TABERNER Y MONTALVO (Madrid, 1844-1900). "Meeting indoors". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Re-coloured. Size: 38 x 51 cm; 54 x 67 cm (frame). Luis Taberner offers us an interior scene with three characters. One of them holds in his hands a copy of "El Combate", a Spanish newspaper of republican ideology and ephemeral existence printed during the years 1870 and 1872, while he comments with his compatriots the content of the publication. Particularly noteworthy is Taberner's successful use of light, bright tones to highlight the main figures, while the rest of the room is submerged in sober darkness. Trained at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid, Luis Taberner regularly attended the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, where he presented "El propagandista" ("The Propagandist") in 1871. The Prado Museum documents that he was also present at the Madrid Horticultural Exhibition of 1881 with the painting entitled "Unas orzas". The Spanish art gallery continues, "A genre painter and skilful portraitist, his works include the Portrait of King Alfonso XII and those of Emilio Arrieta, Francisco A. Barbieri, Manuel Fernández Caballero and Francisco López Dóriga y Bustamante. He also practised decorative painting, of which numerous oil sketches have survived.