Eugenio Lucas Villaamil

EUGENIO LUCAS VILLAAMIL (Madrid, 1858-1919).
"The little blind hen".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Presents faults in the frame.
Measurements: 50 x 90 cm; 70 x 110 cm (frame).

Lucas Villaamil displays in this occasion a vibrant scene of eighteenth-century inspiration. A group of aristocrats are playing blind man's buffalo and a woman has slipped on her satin dress while trying to run away from the blindfolded character. Her expression is a mixture of surprise and amusement as a gentleman extends his hand to help her up. The play takes place in a palatial garden with stone steps and handrail, ornamented with a fountain gushing with prismatic water and a marble statue. Rose bushes and scattered foliage complete the garden, bursting with color under a blue sky. Villaamil's virtuoso brushwork captures the movement, laughter and luminosity of the moment.

Eugenio Lucas Villaamil was a Spanish painter, Knight of the Order of Charles III. Son of the painter Eugenio Lucas Velázquez and Francisca Villaamil, he began his artistic training in his father's workshop and continued his studies at the Escuela Especial de Pintura in Madrid. He participated in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts with Italian works. His paintings maintain the influence of the characteristics of those of his father, with the repetition of Goyaesque themes, resolved with great compositional skill and joy of color. He also copied several themes of the Aragonese, as can be seen in his works Entrada a los toros, Sol of 1885 or Salida de los toros, lluvia of 1885, works set in that traditional Madrid, starring majas and chisperos, of great picturesqueness and popular flavor. In this thematic line, his work En el palco (In the Box) stands out, in which he brings together different resources tested by his father in some of his canvases. In addition to the bullfighting themes, numerous paintings of "Casacones" such as Baile en palacio of 1894 or El mago en palacio of 1894, in which he represents ornate palace environments in rococo style. He was a skilled copyist of some of Goya's paintings, those kept in the Prado, and was protected by the well-known collector José Lázaro Galdiano. He had a truly versatile style and was indisputably creative. He also executed portraits, such as the children's group of the García de Palencia brothers. In addition to applying all his skill in the handling of light with its reflections and hallmarks, he demonstrated his mastery in the treatment of masses of people in movement.