Fortuny - Madrazo - Rico

The year 2005 marks the centenary of the arrival of the Bequest made to the Museo del Prado by the wealthy businessman and entrepreneur Ramón de Errazu (San Luis de Potosí, Mexico 1840 - Paris, 1904). Errazu moved to Paris in the last third of the 19th century and assembled a collection of paintings that reflect haute bourgeois taste of the day. The 25 works in the Bequest reveal his discerning collecting eye, and the group is characterised by a notable homogeneity, mainly comprising as it does works by Fortuny, Rico and Madrazo. They can be considered the three finest artists of the period in Spain and were also close mutual friends.

The exhibition has been organised to commemorate the arrival of this important legacy at the Museo del Prado, one of the most significant groups in the Museum's modern collection.

The core of the Bequest and thus of the present exhibition comprises ten works by Mariano Fortuny (1838-1874). Particularly notable is the remarkable Nude Boy on the Beach at Portici, a masterpiece and a quintessential work by the artist with its impressive study of the naked child's body illuminated by bright light and strong shadow. Another important work by the same artist is the Elderly Nude Man in the Sun, a torso-length figure study which looks back to 17th-century Spanish painting.

Fortuny's innovative method of capturing light, particularly in his late works, made him the leading figure of a new style that inspired both Martín Rico (1833-1908) and Raimundo de Madrazo (1841-1920), the other two leading Spanish artists represented in this exhibition (with four works by Rico and nine by Madrazo). Among the works by the latter (who was also Fortuny's brother-in-law) is a Portrait of Ramón de Errazu (1879). Madrazo's depiction of his friend the collector presents the sitter in an elegant pose, and looks back to the manner of Velázquez to achieve its highly individual and modern handling. The portrait can possibly be considered Madrazo's masterpiece in this genre.

The group is completed by one of the most famous and controversial nudes painted in Paris at the time: The Pearl and the Wave by Paul Baudry (1828-1886). It had previously belonged to the Empress Eugenia de Montijo, whom Errazu knew personally. The exhibition also includes a Portrait of the Marquesa de Manzanedo, a close friend of Errazu's, painted by one of the leading artists of the day, Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891). Errazu knew both French artists well, while they in turn were closely linked to the circle of Madrazo and Fortuny.

Pressetext

Fortuny - Madrazo - Rico
El Legado Ramón de Errazu