166 - Spanish School, circa 1900.

Spanish School, circa 1900. "Female Figure." Oil on cardboard. In good condition. It has slight damage to the edges, consistent with its age. Measurements: 25 × 32.5 cm; 49 × 59 cm (frame). Provenance: Estate of Ramon Martí Alsina and Ricard Martí Aguiló. Artistic and heritage collection originating in the legacy of Catalan painters Ramon Martí Alsina (1826–1894), a seminal figure of 19th-century Catalan Realism, and his son Ricard Martí Aguiló (1857–1935). Passed down and enriched across successive generations, the collection brings together works from the original holdings of both artists alongside acquisitions made by their descendants. Dedicated to preserving and recovering the family legacy, the descendants actively reacquired works by the painters as they entered the market, progressively expanding the collection to encompass paintings, sculptures, archaeological artifacts, and other items of artistic and historical significance. With its loose brushwork and sketchy quality, the work is part of the renewal of Spanish figurative painting around the turn of the century, when an interest in ordinary people and scenes of daily life was combined with an increasingly free and direct style. The figure is rendered with broad, impasto brushstrokes, with particular attention paid to the chromatic hallmarks of her attire and the subdued gesture of the subject. The vagueness of the background focuses attention on the woman and reinforces the immediate, almost sketch-like quality of the composition.