José Alarcón

JOSÉ ALARCÓN (Madrid, active in the last third of the 19th century).
"Lady at the fair.
Oil on canvas.
Presents restorations.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 100 x 75 cm.
A blue and clear sky focuses the viewer's attention on the figure, while the black colorful shawl of the protagonist monumentalizes her figure. The woman appears seated in profile to the viewer and resting one arm on the back of a chair in an anecdotal and everyday attitude. This type of work was very common and appreciated in Spanish art since the 19th century. Traditionally, Spanish painting and literature of the 19th and 20th centuries have been interested in popular customs and types. Sorrolla himself commented "I want to give, always within the verism of my school, a representation of Spain; not looking for philosophies, but the picturesque of each region". This trend spread throughout all the provinces of Spain, Andalusia being the most famous in the representation of popular life. Therefore, this type of work was very common and appreciated in Spanish art from the nineteenth century until well into the twentieth century. Where the creation of popular patterns portrayed through an idyllic vision where the author is influenced by an aesthetic and romantic heritage, developed during the second half of the nineteenth century and which resulted in a localist conception of the landscape, in works that reflected the love for the land itself and the beauty and lyricism of the everyday, the close, the known.
Specializing in genre and portraiture, Alarcón trained as a painter at the Escuela Superior de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado de San Fernando, in Madrid. He submitted works to various competitions, and sent works to the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid since 1871. He is represented in the Prado Museum.