EMILIO SALA Y FRANCES Alcoy (Alicante) (1850) / Madrid (1910) "The actress Teodora Lamadrid in La Ricahembra", 1886

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in the upper right corner. On the back there is an apocryphal inscription on the canvas “E. Room/María Guerrero/in/”María la Brava/de/Marquina”. On the frame label of the Ministry of National Education, National Artistic Heritage Defense Service with provenance and illegible observations. Emilio Sala was one of the great figures of Spanish painting at the end of the 19th century, standing out as a painter of history paintings and in the elaboration of mural paintings destined for the decoration of public and private buildings of Madrid's late-century high society. Another of his specialties, perhaps the least known, was the genre of portraiture in which, precisely, he developed greater expressive freedom, anticipating modern portraiture in some aspects. One of his best-known works in this genre is the Portrait of María Guerrero, in the Museo Nacional del Prado, in which he painted the Spanish actress and theater entrepreneur as a child. The close relationship of the Guerrero family with Emilio Sala must have been what motivated the portrait presented here to be identified until now as an image of the actress María Guerrero, in the role of Doña María la Brava by Eduardo Marquina; as stated in the apocryphal inscription on the back of the canvas. However, the characterization and features of the woman represented on the canvas do not match what is described because it is really a representation of what was her teacher on stage: Teodora Lamadrid. Teodora Hervella Cano, known as Teodora Lamadrid (Zaragoza, 1820-Madrid, 1896) was one of the great ladies of Spanish romantic theater along with her sister BArbara and Matilde Díez, her great rival on stage. Married to the orchestra director Basilio Basili, she taught at the Official School of Declamation of the Madrid Conservatory, where she had the great figure of Spanish theater as a student: María Guerrero. Emilio Sala represents the great diva in this work, recalling one of her most acclaimed roles: that of Doña Juana de Mendoza in La Ricahembra by Manuel Tamayo y Baus. For his execution, the painter relied on a photograph taken of the actress in this performance which, fortunately, was published years later in the magazine Blanco y Negro and has served us for her identification, also painting under her bust the laurels of her deserved fame.