Attributed to Eugenio Lucas Velázquez

Attributed to EUGENIO LUCAS VELAZQUEZ (Madrid, 1817-1870)
"Portrait of young lady with mantilla".
Oil on canvas signed.
It has damage in the frame.
Presents traces of signature in the lower area.
Measurements: 67 x 53 cm; 78 x 63 cm (frame).

Spanish school painting representing a lady with a rose in her hand. The painter does not try to idealize the young woman's dour countenance, achieving in the capture of her character a remarkable psychological strunio. Likewise, he uses the right shades and glazes to describe the pale flesh tones in contrast with the black of the dress.
The aesthetics of the work invites us to think of the painting of Lucas Velázquez is, without a doubt, the Spanish Romantic artist who best understood the art of Goya, becoming the most important and passionate follower of the Goyaesque universe after the death of the brilliant Aragonese, whose essence he managed to assimilate to the point of making it difficult on certain occasions to correctly attribute some little-studied works. Mentioned since the 19th century as Eugenio Lucas Padilla or Eugenio Lucas el Viejo and as a native of Alcalá de Henares, he was actually born in Madrid on February 9, 1817. He began his artistic training as a student at the San Fernando Academy, although, dissatisfied with the cold classicism of the academic teachings, he preferred to study directly the great geniuses of Spanish painting and in the Prado Museum he copied on numerous occasions Velázquez and, above all, Goya, whose work would definitively mark the style and creative personality of this artist. Thus, Lucas found in Goya's compositions an extraordinary vein to develop an imaginative painting, of unleashed passions, fantastic visions and scenes of intense dramatism, within the most genuine romantic spirit, mainly in scenes of Inquisition, witchcraft, witchcraft, pilgrimages, manolas and bulls, all of them themes learned from Goya, and that constitute the most interesting core of his very fruitful artistic career. In addition, in 1850 he painted the ceiling, now disappeared, of the Royal Theater of Madrid, and later Queen Isabel II named him honorary chamber painter and knight of the order of Carlos III.

Female portrait, half-length, on a neutral background. The lady, with her hair parted in the middle, wears a dark suit and long earrings. She holds a rose in her hands while looking directly at the viewer, thus making him participate. The whiteness of the portrait's flesh tones stands out against the dark-toned dress. In spite of being a portrait of great simplicity, without any type of ornamentation, the composition tends to be dynamic, thanks to the marked curved lines generated by the posture of the arm, and the disposition of the mantle that covers the lady.