Attributed to LEONARDO ALENZA Y NIETO (Madrid, 1807 - 1845).

Attributed to LEONARDO ALENZA Y NIETO (Madrid, 1807 - 1845). "Portrait of a Gentleman. Oil on canvas. Relined It has repainting and faults. It has an attribution label from the R. Aras Jauregui collection. Aras Jauregui collection. Museum of Bilbao. Measurements: 65,5 x 51 cm. Male portrait that stands out for its romantic aesthetics, in which the author places the protagonist in the foreground cut out against a neutral background of very dark tonality that makes the presence of the portrayed person stand out. The sitter is depicted in the centre of the composition, turned slightly three-quarter length, with dark hair combed with long sideburns, an unmistakable feature of the fashion of the time. He wears a gold waistcoat and bow tie, with a black jacket, in keeping with the precepts of Romantic period fashion. Despite the sobriety of the scene, which is reflected both in the background and in the treatment of the figure, the artist shows us a portrait with a high psychological content, which he manages to define through the gaze of the main character. He fixes his gaze on the spectator, sketching a small grimace, which does not become a smile, but which does indicate a certain gesture of complicity with respect to the observer of the work. The work dispenses with the artifice of appliance portraits, showing the figure of the protagonist in a realistic way, defined by a very precise and marked drawing, which leaves the use of colour in the background. The work has a label on the back mentioning the ownership, R. Aras Jauregui, referring to Ramón Aras Jauregui, one of the most important Basque collectors of the 19th century. The Museum of Romanticism in Madrid has several portraits by the painter Leonardo Alenza, whose similarities with this work are evident. Thus highlighting the mastery of the artist who, although he was very prolific in the subject of customs, also made several portraits, which achieved great recognition by the public and critics. Leonardo Alenza began his training by learning drawing with Juan Antonio Ribera and attending the colouring and composition classes given by José de Madrazo at the San Fernando Royal Academy. In 1842 he was appointed academician of merit of San Fernando. He specialised in small-format genre paintings, as well as portraits full of life in which he knew how to endow his models with expressiveness and psychological depth. His oil paintings are characterised by their loose, stain-based execution, as well as by his masterly handling of light and his mastery of colour. His palette is dominated, as we can see here, by brown and muted tones, a legacy of the more sober Goya, that of the "Black Paintings", to which he is also close in the subject matter chosen for many of his works, of which the oil painting we are discussing here is an eloquent example. In fact, Aureliano de Beruete considered him the most important of the painters influenced by Goya. Leonardo Alenza is widely represented in the Museo del Prado, and also has works in the Romantic and Municipal Museums of Madrid, the National Library, the Lázaro Galdiano and the Marquis of Cerralbo.