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Ramón de Errazu
Madrazo y Garreta, Raimundo de
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Rome (Italy), 1841 - Versailles (France), 1920
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1879. Oil on panel Room 062
This masterpiece by Raimundo de Madrazo represents his mature style in a worldly portrait painted with a personality that transcends his varied and different influences. Made a year before he was awarded first prize at the Universal Exposition of 1878 in Paris, it reveals the confidence of maturity. Moreover, this is a portrait of a very close friend who was also an outstanding collector. Errazu played a fundamental role in that Exposition as well, as the success of the Spanish presence there was largely due to the presence of works from his own collection, including numerous pieces by Fortuny, Rico and Raimundo de Madrazo himself. And Errazu, who had only just begun collecting at that time, must also have had his taste in art confirmed by the critical praise his paintings received there, so the present portrait, painted by his friend and probable advisor on acquisitions, would have reinforced their mutual consideration and esteem.
Raimundo's friendship with Errazu is manifest in the dedication, and in his profound knowledge of his model's personality, which led to an interpretation of this wealthy and refined figure that accentuates his elegance without artifice. The lessons Raimundo de Madrazo learned from his father, and his study of Velázquez's tradition at the Museo del Prado are manifest here in various aspects: the limited palette, the ambiguity of the space, with no separation between the horizontal and vertical planes, the presentation of the model with a natural yet elegant air, the placement and stylization of his feet, and the long brushstrokes in the background. At the same time, in Paris, Madrazo became progressively more receptive to the style of portraiture that had been highly successful in France since the Second Empire, and by the final quarter of the 19th century, he himself had become one of the most qualified portrait painters in Paris's high society. Thus, his intention of making the figure more elegant led him to depict his friend as taller and more slender than in real life, as can be seen in a comparison of this portrait with the photographs of Errazu by André-Adolpe-Eugène Disdéri now at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. A similar stylization appears in other portraits by Raimundo de Madrazo, including one he painted a year later: his likeness of Errazu's friend, the Marchioness d'Hervey de Saint Denis (Paris, Musée d'Orsay), who was one of the foremost ladies in his circle.
The present work's peculiarly vertical and narrow format can be related in some ways to the influence of Japanese prints that the author knew well. Like his friends, Mariano Fortuny and Alfred Stevens, he was attracted to the rich color of art from the Far East. At any rate, here, the vertical format serves mostly to accentuate the lengthening of the figure, which is favored by the distinction with which he wears his elegant suit, and his only adornment: a thick gold ring that holds his white tie. Finally, the blurry character of the background that contrasts with the precise profiles of the figure can be linked to photographic portraits (Text drawn from Barón, J.: El siglo XIX en el Prado, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007, pp. 328-332).
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1879 Painting Oil Panel
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Height: 224 cm.; Width: 96.5 cm.
Legacy of Ramón de Errazu y Rubio de Tejada, 1904
Bibliography +
Salas, Xavier de, Museo del Prado. Catálogo de las pinturas, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1972.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Catálogo de las pinturas del siglo XIX, Ministerio de Cultura, Madrid, 1985, pp. 157.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Museo del Prado. Inventario general de pinturas. Nuevas Adquisiciones. Museo Iconográfico. Tapices., Museo del Prado, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1996.
El legado de Ramón de Errazu: Fortuny, Madrazo y Rico, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2005, pp. 166, nº23.
Díez, José Luis; Barón, Javier (ed.), El siglo XIX en el Prado, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2007, pp. 329/ lám.75.
El retrato español en el Prado del Greco a Sorolla, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2010, pp. 38.
Barón, Javier, 'El virtuosismo en la pintura española del s.XIX: Mariano Fortuny, Martín Rico y Raimundo de Madrazo' En: Del realismo al impresionismo, Fundación Amigos Museo del Prado - Galaxia Gutenberg, Madrid, 2014, pp. 237-265 [264].
Museo Nacional del Prado, Pintura del Siglo XIX en el Museo del Prado: catálogo general. Dirección científica, José Luis Díez; catálogo, Ana Gutiérrez Márquez; coordinación, Pedro J. Martínez Plaza, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2015, pp. 359.
Other inventories +
Inv. Nuevas Adquisiciones (iniciado en 1856). Núm. 1366.
[Al margen izquierdo=] Como se ha notado que los cuadros de la colección legada por D. Ramon de Errazu, no se hallan inventariados, se ponen ahora en este sitio aunque debieran estar antes. / Legado de D. Ramón de Errazu, que se acepto por Real Orden de 13 de diciembre de 1904 / Sigue el legado Errazu Autor = Raimundo Madrazo / 1366. Asunto = Retrato de D. Ramon de Errazu (tabla) / Dimensiones = alto = 2,16 ancho = 0,88
Catálogo Museo del Prado, 1910. Núm. 11.
Catálogo Museo del Prado, 1942-1996. Núm. 11-ERR.
Catálogo Museo del Prado, 1985. Núm. 2614.
Exhibitions +
Museo del Prado 1819-2019. A place of memory
El Siglo XIX en el Prado
El legado Ramón Errazu: Fortuny, Madrazo y Rico
Location +
Room 062 (On Display)
Update date: 17-01-2020 | Registry created on 28-04-2015
Other works by Madrazo y Garreta, Raimundo de
The Painter Benito Soriano Murillo
The Painter Eduardo Zamacois
The Printmaker Bernardo Rico
The San Miguel courtyard in Seville
Pool in the Gardens of the Real Alcázar, Seville
The Pavilion of Charles V in the Gardens of the Alcázar of Seville
Aline Masson with a White Mantilla
Manuela de Errazu
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