Spanish school; circa 1770. "Portrait of a lady". Oil on canvas. Relined.

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Old Masters

By Setdart Auction House

Jun 30, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-06-30 08:30:00 2021-06-30 08:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Old Masters https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-7134
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• Lot Description
  Spanish school; circa 1770. "Portrait of a lady". Oil on canvas. Relined. Measures: 80 x 64 cm. A defiant woman looks at the viewer, regal and confident, the lady stands imposing on a neutral background, leaving only her torso in view. Both her clothes and her careful hairstyle show us her high social status, although she is not wearing any jewelry, but her pearly skin is devoid of any adornment. The composition of the work follows the classical tradition of the portrait, however, both the tones chosen by the artist, as well as the aesthetics of the woman, inscribe the piece in the aesthetics of the Rococo period. The almost turquoise blue and powdered pink were very recurrent shades at the time, in which there was a taste for pastel colors, whose interest was very much in vogue at the French court. In addition, it is worth mentioning the lady's hairstyle, pouf style, which became fashionable when used by Queen Marie Antoinette, who not only hollowed out her hair, but decorated it with different ornaments, such as sculptures, or feathers, as can be seen in this work. In the 18th 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 17th century progressed and even more so in the 18th century, became more relaxed and moved 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.
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