Art in the Reigns of Isabella II and Alphonso XII (Part I)

Isabel II, the queen who was vacationing on the beaches of San Sebastian when the Glorious Revolution erupted. Daughter of Ferdinand VII and his fourth marriage to Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. As she had no male heir, the monarch repealed the "Salic Law" to approve the "Pragmatic Sanction," by which her eldest daughter was recognized as heiress.

It might be that sitting on the throne at such a young age made her very inexperienced in the matter. It has even been commented that she was an uneducated person, ordinary and immature... A complex figure for the times in which Spain was then (Espadas Burgos, 1995:5). Nonetheless, what is most interesting, aside from politics and the intrigues related to court plots that attract any fan of soap operas, is art.

Isabel's reign is characterized artistically by the break with Romanticism, which was influenced by both foreign and national factors. It is known as a bourgeois art determined by the invasion of Spain by Napoleon's troops, which provoked a nationalist sentiment among Spaniards. National Exhibitions of Fine Arts were also created, thus promoting the development of arts, bourgeois collecting, the success of a new clientele; young people would embark for their academic training in Rome and France, where they would be influenced by nazarenes and purism. According to the main themes of paintings, portraits, landscape, and genre scenes are favored; with their principal important centers being Andalusia, Madrid, and Catalonia.

As a great master of courtly purism, where academic tradition is very present, it's necessary to highlight Federico Madrazo y Kuntz (1815-1894), son of José de Madrazo. A singular aspect of this author is that he does not care for landscape backgrounds but rather the depiction of open spaces towards the exterior (Martí Ayxela, 1858:4). He idealizes his models without forgetting reality and presents a great technique in textiles. His masterpiece is The Countess of Vilches (1853), where one can see his great influence inherited from Ingres.

Another great author is Carlos Luis de Ribera y Fieve (1815-1891), who stands out as an excellent portraitist within the late Romantic tradition, with his historical and religious themes, competing with Madrazo.

On the contrary, Antonio María Esquivel (1806-1857) belongs to that generation of Romantic painters from Seville in Court. Known as a simple man, patriotic, friendly with his friends and, above all, with his teacher José María Domínguez Bécquer. He stands out for his great talent as a portraitist with Nazarene and Murillo influences (Perez Calero, 2019).

As previously mentioned and to conclude this first part that encompasses Isabel II's reign, one of the important centers is Catalonia. Here there will be a strong tendency towards nazarenism, which was born in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century as a reaction against neoclassicism. Peregrín Clavé (1811-1880), prestigious member of the Nazarenes group with Ingres influence, specialized in historical genres where his idealized figures will be adorned with jewelry and accessories that he depicts with great mastery. There is also a collection of bourgeois portraits he made for the III Exhibition of the Academy of San Carlos (1850-1851) (Guadarrama Velázquez, 2021).

Bibliography

Espadas Burgos, M. (1995). Spain under Isabel II. Historia Cuadernos, 16. Madrid, Spain.

Guadarrama Velázquez, A (2021). Portrait and Bourgeois Identity. Peregrín Clavé and Édouard Pingret in Mexico, 1850-1851. Autonomous University of Mexico.

Martí Ayxela, M.(1994). Federico de Madrazo in Seville, 1858. Art Laboratory. University of Seville, Spain.

Pérez Calero, G.(2021). The Painter Antonio María Esquivel and his Family Environment: On Two Unpublished Portraits of His Wife. Art Laboratory. University of Seville, Spain.