Sevillian school; first half of the XIX century.

Sevillian school; first half of the XIX century.
"Child.
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 98 x 64 cm; 123 x 87 cm (frame).
It is evident that there is a great influence of Murillo's painting in the way the artist has portrayed the protagonist, emphasizing his naive and vulnerable character. In this work we see a scene framed within the costumbrismo of the time, where the artist approaches the subject through a realistic language where a balanced and well-established composition stands out. The author uses a genre in which popular types and attitudes, behaviors, values and habits common to a specific group of the population, region or class are described through the description, satirical, nostalgic or narrative, of the environments, customs, clothing, parties and entertainment, traditions, trades and representative types of a society. The idea of costumbrismo arose from an attempt to understand reality, or more precisely, reality understood in a particular way, from a specific point of view.
It is possibly the work of Valeriano Domínguez Bécquer (Seville, 1833 - Madrid, 1870). Son of the costumbrista painter José, Valeriano Domínguez Bécquer was soon orphaned, growing up with his brother Gustavo Adolfo under the protection of his maternal uncles, and guided in painting by his uncle Joaquín, also a painter of customs and professor at the School of Fine Arts in Seville. He remained in his uncle's workshop until 1853, and in 1862 he settled permanently in Madrid. Three years later, on a scholarship from the Ministry, he travels through the lands of Soria, Aragon, Navarre and the Basque Country, studying the Spanish types, costumes and customs, creating scenes of great charm captured in the immediacy, from village to village. In 1868 his scholarship was withdrawn due to the political change, and from then on he would subsist thanks to collaborations as a draftsman and writer in "El Museo Universal", "El Arte en España" and "La Ilustración Española y Americana". He also cultivated the portrait, standing out as an emblematic example of the romantic genre the one he painted of his brother Gustavo Adolfo (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla). He is currently represented in the Prado Museum, the aforementioned Museum of Fine Arts of Seville, the Romantic Museum of Madrid and others.