Leonardo Alenza Circle

Circle of LEONARDO ALENZA Y NIETO (Madrid, 1807 - 1845).
"Tavern scene".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 28 x 37,5 cm.

In the skillful caricatured characterization of the characters the influence of Teniers and other Dutch painters that Alenza admired can be appreciated. Popular taste and political criticism are united in the tender canvas.

Leonardo Alenza began his training learning drawing with Juan Antonio Ribera, and attending the coloring and composition classes taught by José de Madrazo at the Royal Academy of San Fernando. In 1842 he was named academician of merit of San Fernando. He specialized in small-format costumbrist works, as well as in portraits full of life in which he knew how to endow his models with expressiveness and psychological depth. An outstanding renovator of the Madrid costumbrista school, his vision is critical of society, taking pleasure in reflecting conflictive aspects of life, as opposed to the kindly vision of his Andalusian contemporaries. A great draftsman, gifted with an astonishing ease of execution, he was capable of sketching with great economy of means any scene that passed before his eyes, which allowed him to collaborate as a draftsman in important publications of the time. His oil paintings are characterized by their loose, stain-based execution, as well as by his masterful handling of light and his mastery of color. His palette is dominated, as we see here, by brown and muted tones, an inheritance of the more sober Goya, that of the "Black Paintings", which he also approaches in the subject matter chosen in many of his works. In fact, Aureliano de Beruete considered him the most important painter influenced by Goya. His is a loose brushstroke, which configures the image based on expressive spots of color. He does not describe, but focuses on the faces of the characters, with an almost expressionist treatment. Leonardo Alenza is widely represented in the Prado Museum, and also has works in the Romantic and Municipal Museums of Madrid, the National Library, the Lázaro Galdiano and the Marquis of Cerralbo.