Vicente López Portaña

VICENTE LÓPEZ PORTAÑA (Valencia, 1772 - Madrid, 1850).
"Portrait of Antonio Allué y Sessé.
Oil on canvas.
Presents losses in the pictorial layer.
Dedicated.
Measurements: 104 x 81 cm; 118,5 x 95,5 cm (frame).

Vicente López immortalizes in this canvas Antonio Allué y Sessé (Asín de Broto, 1766 - Toledo, 1842), nobleman and religious who became confessor of the Royal Family of Fernando VII and Patriarch of the West Indies among other positions. The represented person is wearing the decorations and sashes of his rank and holds in his left hand a pair of glasses. Ecclesiastical attire in the background reminds us of his religious position.

Vicente López began his training as a disciple of Antonio de Villanueva at the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia, where he obtained in 1786 and 1789 the first class prize, obtaining a pension to study in Madrid. Already in the court, the following year he reached the first place in the competition of the Academy of San Fernando. There he learned the baroque and colorful sense of compositions, and the taste for drawing, precise and analytical. The baroque lavishness of the frescoes of Luca Giordano and Corrado Giaquinto also had a decisive influence on his language. Already consecrated, he returned to his native city in 1792. There he received important public and private commissions, including portraits of Ferdinand VII and Marshal Soult. In his portraits López shows his Valencian heritage, the weight of Ribera and Ribalta's naturalism, as well as his mastery in the reproduction of details and qualities. His quality in the field of the portrait makes Fernando VII call him back to the court in 1814, naming him the following year first painter of chamber. From then on he was the most sought-after painter by the Spanish high society, and he alternated his work at the court with teaching, official posts and private commissions. In 1823 he took over the artistic direction of the Royal Museum of Paintings, for which he painted a superb portrait of Francisco de Goya, now in the Prado. Works by Vicente López are kept in the Prado Museum, the Fine Arts Museum of Valencia San Pío V, the Academy of San Fernando, the Municipal Museum of Játiva, the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, the New York Historical Society, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome and the Lázaro Galdiano Foundation in Madrid.