Lot Essay
Following a popular device in his full length portraits, José de Campeche has depicted his sitter against a rich forest that covers most of the left side of the composition. It is here that we also find a stone pedestal where the artist may have initially intended to inscribe the name of the sitter. To the right of the composition, on a mountain landscape, a city emerges. This city is probably a vision of San Juan de Puerto Rico which was most likely based on a print similar to the one used in 'San Emidgio de Ascoli,' belonging to the Church of Santo Domingo or San José. But the high towers and the pitched roofs are not characteristic of the city at the end of the eighteenth century. The predominant sky with greyish clouds is also another common feature in Campeche's paintings that is exhibited in this work.
The sitter wears the white and blue army jacket of an officer from the Fixed Regiment of Puerto Rico called Fijo, as Arturo Davila vividly describes in the following exerpt: 'el retratado viste casaca de género blanco con vueltas de chamelote azul que se aplican también en los puños, alto collarín, chupa guarnecida de encajes, bicornio al parecer castoreño con cucarda encarnada, galoneado con una gruesa cinta de plata y calzón blanco fijado a las medias del hilo del mismo color con hebilla de plata al igual que la botonadura. Los botines negros lucen también hebillas del mismo metal. Cuelga del cinto un sable de empuñadura plateada con borlón de gusanillo de lo mismo.'
The Fixed Regiment of Puerto Rico was restructured in 1790 and consisted of two infantry battalions. Each of these battalions were comprised of eight companies of fusileers and two of grenadiers, an artillery brigade and a detachment of sappers. Though the bulk of the infantrymen were of Puerto Rican descent, the more specialized arms (such as the artillerymen and the sappers), were predominantly composed of Spaniards. The two battalions wore uniforms of different color, one white while the other red, although all of the officers seem to have worn the same white uniforms with blue facings that the present sitter is attired in.
There are also two other known portraits of officers from the Fixed Regiment: the portrait of Captain don Ramón de Carvajal (doña Carmen Lacosta de Nevárez collection, Puerto Rico), dated ca. 1792, and the portrait of don Santiago Flores (don Carlos Díaz collection, Puerto Rico), dated ca. 1790. The present unknown officer is depicted with his left hand hidden under his waistcoat and just one tassle, as in the portrait of don Santiago Flores. This painting can also be dated back to ca. 1790.
We are grateful to Dr. Arturo Dávila for confirming the attribution from a transparency, and for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot.
The sitter wears the white and blue army jacket of an officer from the Fixed Regiment of Puerto Rico called Fijo, as Arturo Davila vividly describes in the following exerpt: 'el retratado viste casaca de género blanco con vueltas de chamelote azul que se aplican también en los puños, alto collarín, chupa guarnecida de encajes, bicornio al parecer castoreño con cucarda encarnada, galoneado con una gruesa cinta de plata y calzón blanco fijado a las medias del hilo del mismo color con hebilla de plata al igual que la botonadura. Los botines negros lucen también hebillas del mismo metal. Cuelga del cinto un sable de empuñadura plateada con borlón de gusanillo de lo mismo.'
The Fixed Regiment of Puerto Rico was restructured in 1790 and consisted of two infantry battalions. Each of these battalions were comprised of eight companies of fusileers and two of grenadiers, an artillery brigade and a detachment of sappers. Though the bulk of the infantrymen were of Puerto Rican descent, the more specialized arms (such as the artillerymen and the sappers), were predominantly composed of Spaniards. The two battalions wore uniforms of different color, one white while the other red, although all of the officers seem to have worn the same white uniforms with blue facings that the present sitter is attired in.
There are also two other known portraits of officers from the Fixed Regiment: the portrait of Captain don Ramón de Carvajal (doña Carmen Lacosta de Nevárez collection, Puerto Rico), dated ca. 1792, and the portrait of don Santiago Flores (don Carlos Díaz collection, Puerto Rico), dated ca. 1790. The present unknown officer is depicted with his left hand hidden under his waistcoat and just one tassle, as in the portrait of don Santiago Flores. This painting can also be dated back to ca. 1790.
We are grateful to Dr. Arturo Dávila for confirming the attribution from a transparency, and for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot.