Spanish school; ca. 1830.

Spanish school; ca. 1830. "Portrait of a Gentleman. Oil on panel. Presents a period frame. Measurements: 14 x 11 cm; 18 x 15,5 cm (frame). Portrait of a gentleman, who has been captured by the artist in a diplomatic attitude looking directly at the spectator. The figure is placed in the foreground, bust-length, against a neutral, dark background, which makes his presence very exalted due to his vividly illuminated face. In fact, the carefully studied lighting is the main expressive resource used by the painter; it is a focused, directed, artificial light that enters the composition from the front and falls directly on the main area of the image, the figure's face, creating great clarity on his face and clothing, thus modelling his facial features and anatomical volumes with great naturalism. The dominant chromatic range revolves around dark tones, combining white with a more sober palette of maroons and blacks, in a restrained intonation typical of the portraitist of this period. As in the rest of Europe, portraiture became the genre that gained most prominence due to the excellence of Spanish painting as a result of the new social structures that were established in the Western world during this century, embodying the ultimate expression of the transformation in the taste and mentality of the new clientele that emerged among the nobility and the wealthy gentry, who were to take the reins of history in this period. While official circles gave precedence to other artistic genres, such as history painting, and the incipient collectors encouraged the profusion of genre paintings, portraiture was in great demand for paintings intended for the more private sphere, as a reflection of the value of the individual in the new society. This genre embodies the permanent presence of the image of its protagonists, to be enjoyed in the privacy of a studio, in the everyday warmth of a family cabinet or presiding over the main rooms of the house.