Eliézer Jaureguizar

ELIÉZER JAUREGUIZAR CAGIGAL (Santander, 1856 - Cadiz, 1880).
"Portrait of José María Cagigal", 1873.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated on the left side.
The frame shows lack of polychromy and damage. The canvas shows slight lack of paint.
Provenance: Jaureguizar - Cagigal - Yzaguirre Family Collection, by descent until today.
Measures: 80 x 63 cm; 99 x 83 cm (frame).
Eliécer Jaureguizar immortalises in this canvas a member of the Cagigal family, the lineage of his mother's family. As in the rest of Europe, portraiture became the leading genre par excellence in Spanish painting in the 18th century as a result of the new social structures, embodying the ultimate expression of the transformation in the taste and mentality of the new bourgeois clientele. This genre embodies the permanent presence of the image of its protagonists, to be enjoyed in the intimacy of a studio, in the daily warmth of a family cabinet or presiding over the main rooms of the house.

Painter of portraits, flowers and historical scenes, Eliécer Jaureguizar immortalised in his canvases prominent figures of the second half of the 19th century, including King Alfonso XII and the Marquis of Comillas. He was granted a scholarship by Santander City Council to study in Cadiz, where he completed his training at the School of Fine Arts in 1870. The first exhibition of his works was held there. That same year he took part in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid with the work entitled "Muerte de Menacho" ("Death of Menacho"). His painting was characterised by a careful and distinguished line. He died very young, in the middle of his artistic career. Jaureguizar is currently represented in the Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Santander and in the Palau Moja, as well as in various private collections.