Spanish school, following French models; mid XVIII... Lot n° 37

Spanish school, following French models; mid XVIII century. "Gallant scene". Oil on canvas. Presents faults, repainting and xylophagous damage. It has a frame of the twentieth century Carlos IV style. Measurements: 111 x 97 cm; 133 x 119.5 cm (frame). In this gallant scene, the author shows us four characters in the center of the composition. Three of them present a greater proximity among them and seem to entertain the fourth one that is in the left zone of the group, slightly separated. The landscape in which they are inscribed is of pastoral character, since it presents a profuse vegetation and some sheep that swirl around the main protagonist. The presence of the house that seems to simulate a farm, added to the elegance of the lady dressed in blue, holding a little dog on a leash, is very reminiscent of Marie Antoinette, who embarked on the construction of a space in the gardens of Versailles called the queen's village. In it she arranged a little house that imitated the aesthetics of the farmers' constructions, and gave shelter to numerous animals, to recreate placidly what she considered a country life, far from the pomp of the court. The scene is set in the eighteenth century, worked with great attention to detail, a strong descriptive spirit and a special care of the play of light and the qualities of the fabrics, following the masters of that century. This type of scenes, with a gallant and hedonistic theme, cheerful and colorful, worked with a precious and descriptive workmanship, were frequent during the second half of the 19th century, within the context of historicism. They belong to the genre called "de casacones" in Spain, and "tableautin" in France, characterized by works inspired by an idealized past, frequently from the 17th and 18th centuries, normally of small or medium format and destined to an eminently bourgeois clientele. One of the first examples of this genre is "Il Contino", by Mariano Fortuny, dated 1861 and preserved in the National Museum of Art of Catalonia.