Eduardo León Garrido

EDUARDO LEÓN GARRIDO (Madrid, 1856 - Caen, France, 1949).
"Portrait of a lady", La Varenne, 1890.
Oil on canvas. Restored
Signed, dated and located.
Measurements: 66 x 54 cm; 91 x 80 x 6 cm (frame).

In this work we can appreciate the magnificent gifts as portraitist of Eduardo León Garrido, who offers us a beautiful and young lady of delicate features, elegantly dressed with gloves and a marabou. The girl appears three-quarter length, in a completely natural attitude that departs from the canons of the genre, breaking with the protocol distance that is usually established in the portrait between spectator and model. Likewise, the young woman appears against a neutral background, as was the norm at the time, whose pale light brings out pearly sparkles on her skin. However, the absolute center of the image is the captivating face of the lady, with drooping eyelids, brown dreamy eyes that are directed towards something we do not see, losing themselves in the distance.

Eduardo León Garrido began his training in Madrid, at the Escuela Superior de Pintura and in the workshop of Vicente Palmaroli, whom he always considered his only teacher. A costumbrist painter, he specialized in dance scenes in rococo salons, and also stood out as a master of female portraiture. When he did not obtain the scholarship to study in Rome, he traveled there by his own means with his teacher Palmaroli, and later to Paris. In 1875 King Alfonso XII acquired one of his paintings, and that same year he obtained a pension from the Diputación de Madrid to study in the French capital, where he completed his training in the studio of Raimundo de Madrazo. The following year he participated for the first time in the Paris Salon, where he presented a "San Jerónimo". He soon attracted the attention of the most prominent art dealer of the time, Adolphe Goupil, for whom he worked for several years. From 1876, Garrido exhibited his works individually in Parisian galleries such as Borniche, showing portraits and contemporary scenes. During this period, he also made numerous trips to Venice, accompanied by Madrazo, Fortuny and Martín Rico. He participated assiduously in the Salons of Paris, as well as in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts of Madrid and in the International Exhibitions of London and Munich, where he obtained great successes of critics and public. Between 1882 and 1894 he no longer participated in the Salon (except in 1884, when he exhibited a portrait of his friend the painter Bréauté), but focused on supplying the Parisian and Madrid galleries with which he had contracts. In 1892 he signed an exclusive contract with Félix Gérard, who imposed on him the theme of casacons, so fashionable at the time. Thus, at this time he will dedicate himself almost exclusively to painting gallant scenes set in the eighteenth century. He soon left Paris and settled in Varenne-Saint-Hilaire (France), where he was quickly integrated into the cultural life and was appointed professor at the local School of Arts and Crafts. In 1895 he exhibited his works again at the Paris Salon, and in 1914 he was granted French nationality. During the first decades of the 20th century he continued to paint, mainly landscapes of the south of France and the Basque Country, as well as portraits of his family and flowers. Currently, Eduardo León Garrido is represented in the Prado Museum and in the Charles Léandre de Condé sur Noireau (France), as well as in important national and foreign private collections.