RICARDO NAVARRETE Y FOS (Serpis, Alicante, 1834... Lot 79

RICARDO NAVARRETE Y FOS (Serpis, Alicante, 1834 - Madrid, 1909). "View of Venice. Watercolor on paper. Signed and located in Venice. Measurements: 46 x 25 cm; 82,5 x 59,5 cm (frame). It is a painting framed in the tradition of Venetian vedutismo, whose history begins in the eighteenth century, although it has antecedents dating back to the second half of the fifteenth century. Proud of its power, the city then considered queen of the Mediterranean due to its commercial contacts reinforced it through a true visual propaganda. With the precise and opportunely idealized representation of the scene of so many historical and legendary episodes, a myth destined to last in time was consolidated, even if in the 18th century only a few shaky foundations remained to sustain it. A painter from Alicante in the second half of the 19th century, Ricardo Navarrete, brother of the engraver Federico Navarrete, tackled a wide range of subjects in his work, standing out especially in portraiture, history and customs painting. He began his training at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos, in Valencia, and then went on to the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. An outstanding student, he obtained pensions for Rome and Venice, and during his stay in Italy he began to send works to the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts. Thus, in 1864 he obtained an honorable mention, and three years later his work "Capuchinos en el coro" (Capuchins in the choir) won him a third medal. Navarrete settled in Venice thanks to the patronage of José María Olmos, and there he dedicated himself to painting themes of the history of the city and small Venetian genre paintings, much admired in his time. He continued to participate in official competitions, and in 1873 he was awarded a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Vienna. That same year he painted a remarkable portrait of the novelist Enrique Pérez Escrich, which was presented as a posthumous tribute at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1897, the year of the writer's death. In 1884 Navarrete returned to Spain and took up a teaching post at the School of Fine Arts in Seville, from where he would later move on to Barcelona and Madrid. He was also a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel de Hungría in Seville. Works by Ricardo Navarrete are currently conserved in the Prado Museum, the Municipal Museum of Játiva, the Museum of Almería, the Provincial Council of Zamora, the City Hall of Irún, the Civil Government of Vitoria and other public and private collections.