Manuel Castellano (madrid, 1826 - Madrid, 1880). Female Figure In A Garden , Pencil On Paper.

Manuel Castellano (Madrid, 1828 -1880) Female figure in a garden, pencil on paper 329 x 254 mm. Signed and dated 1846.
Castellano was an interesting painter trained with Carlos Luis Ribera at the Academy of San Fernando. His work was highly valued in his day and Castellano has won numerous prizes at National Exhibitions since 1856; He also participated in the Universal Exhibitions in Paris in 1855 and 1867. He was a person of great culture and a lover of letters who had an interesting collection of drawings, many of which went to the National Library, and he interested in photography, an art of which he also had an interesting collection. His compositions on the theme of bullfighting are particularly interesting and reflect an artist with his own personality, who offers an unprecedented vision of 19th century Spain through the world of bullfighting. Our play speaks of a youthful work, carried out at the start of a career which, a short time later, would achieve great fame. Its display is of great academic rigor and extreme delicacy, in which the young woman is captured with great success and a certain psychological introspection in the portrait, transmitting a joyful gesture, typical of a young woman, although somewhat limited by decorum and mannerisms. of his strict high society upbringing. The careful elaboration of its dress stands out, whose design faithfully reproduces its different textures, as well as the beautiful decorative sculptural groups that are on the columns, creating, next to the balustrade, an elegant classical environment enhanced by the beauty of the vast landscape with forest stretching to the distant mountains, subtly traced in fine pencil.