Lot Essay
From his early training in Seville, José Jiménez y Aranda showed considerable interest in genre painting. During a sojourn in Rome, he befriended the painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, known for his Romantic costume pictures, and became one of his most ardent followers. Yet where Fortuny's paintings were preciously detailed and loosely painted, Jiménez's exhibit more precise draughtmanship and tempered palate, probably a reflection of his early training in lithography and portraiture.
Un Lance en la plaza de toros is an enlargement of Jiménez's original of 1871 that was exhibited at the Exposicion Nacional de Madrid, where it won a third class medal. Our version was one of two entries Jiménez submitted to the Paris Salon of 1880, and was also exhibited in Barcelona and Chicago.
Bullfighting probably arrived in Spain from the Moors, and by the 12th century was a favored pastime of the aristocracy. In the 18th century it became the realm of professional torreros. Goya was among the first artists to depict the subject, and by the mid-19th century it had become a favorite among genre painters and collectors. In particular, bullfighting scenes reached a popular audience through the mass production of lithographs, of which those by Pharamond Blanchard (fig.1) were among the most celebrated.
Un Lance en la Plaza de Toros is notable for its strong emotion and emphasis on gesture that recalls Neoclassical painting, which stressed these qualities in order to convey the moral tone of a painting. Jiménez's picture is obviously indebted to this aesthetic, yet he incorporated it within a contemporary genre scene rather than an historical subject. Moreover, he plays on the theatricality that is an integral part of the bullfighter's repertoire. The viewer is caught in the split-second of the unseen picador's misfortune, and even the overturned chairs, fallen walking stick and fan possess an expressive gravity that adds to the passion of what has just transpired.
Alongside the moral character of the painting, Jiménez showcases the fashionable aspect of the event. The women are elaborately attired in their mantillas and embroidered dresses. The entire party congregates inside the arches of the shaded loge, which Jiménez clearly distinguishes from the lower-class seating in the sun-beaten stands. La Giralda, the great cathedral of Seville, rises in the background. For all of the drama, one feels that at any moment the party will return, as in Blanchard's print, to their social banter.
Fig. 1: Pharamond Blanchard, El arrastre
Photo credit: The New York Public Library
Un Lance en la plaza de toros is an enlargement of Jiménez's original of 1871 that was exhibited at the Exposicion Nacional de Madrid, where it won a third class medal. Our version was one of two entries Jiménez submitted to the Paris Salon of 1880, and was also exhibited in Barcelona and Chicago.
Bullfighting probably arrived in Spain from the Moors, and by the 12th century was a favored pastime of the aristocracy. In the 18th century it became the realm of professional torreros. Goya was among the first artists to depict the subject, and by the mid-19th century it had become a favorite among genre painters and collectors. In particular, bullfighting scenes reached a popular audience through the mass production of lithographs, of which those by Pharamond Blanchard (fig.1) were among the most celebrated.
Un Lance en la Plaza de Toros is notable for its strong emotion and emphasis on gesture that recalls Neoclassical painting, which stressed these qualities in order to convey the moral tone of a painting. Jiménez's picture is obviously indebted to this aesthetic, yet he incorporated it within a contemporary genre scene rather than an historical subject. Moreover, he plays on the theatricality that is an integral part of the bullfighter's repertoire. The viewer is caught in the split-second of the unseen picador's misfortune, and even the overturned chairs, fallen walking stick and fan possess an expressive gravity that adds to the passion of what has just transpired.
Alongside the moral character of the painting, Jiménez showcases the fashionable aspect of the event. The women are elaborately attired in their mantillas and embroidered dresses. The entire party congregates inside the arches of the shaded loge, which Jiménez clearly distinguishes from the lower-class seating in the sun-beaten stands. La Giralda, the great cathedral of Seville, rises in the background. For all of the drama, one feels that at any moment the party will return, as in Blanchard's print, to their social banter.
Fig. 1: Pharamond Blanchard, El arrastre
Photo credit: The New York Public Library