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

Former attribution to LEONARDO ALENZA Y NIETO (Madrid, 1807 - 1845). "Possible portrait of Don Juan José de Jáuregui". Signed MDAW Partially illegible on the right side. Measurements: 27,5 x 24 cm. It is possible that this work of Romantic heritage portrays the figure of the deputy general of the Señorío de Vizcaya, Don Juan José de Jáuregui (Bizkaia, 1821 - Bilbao, 1891). A student of mathematics, Jáuregui was educated at the Royal Seminary of Bergara, although he later worked in the iron industry. He was recognised for his position as a railway councillor in Bilbao, as well as being appointed on several occasions, deputy of Bizkaia. 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.