Spanish school; first half of the 19th century.

Spanish school; first half of the XIX century.
"Flemish party".
Oil on canvas.
It has faults in the frame.
Presents illegible signature in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 55 x 85 cm; 75 x 106 cm (frame).
Traditionally, the Spanish painting and literature have been interested in the customs and popular types. The arrival of romanticism enlivened this current, contributing to the Hispanic tradition the vision that foreigners had of our people, due to the snobbery of a Europeanizing and liberal national bourgeoisie that, also by foreign influence and under the romantic fashion, turns its eyes to the people and the monuments of the past. This, general in all Spain, will be preferably in Andalusia, for being this land the dreamed goal of foreigners, and where the influence of the vision they had of the Spaniard and his peculiar customs had to be felt more strongly. Thus, of the two fundamental costumbrista schools, the one from Seville is focused on a friendly and folkloric picturesqueness, far from any attempt of social criticism; on the other hand, the one from Madrid is more pungent and harsh, sometimes showing not only the vulgar, but even recreating in torn visions of a typical world of the slums, in which the spirit of criticism is evident.