Luis Álvarez Català

John Denison Champlin, Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, New York, 1888, n.p.  
Edward Strahan, The Art Treasures of America, 1879, Philadelphia, vol. III, pp. 19, 22, and in the 1977 facsimile edition, vol. III, pp. 8-9, 12  
 

Known for artistic wit and piquant social commentary, Luis Alvarez used these formidable traits in the present work, known alternately as The Ladies' Pet.  Full of coquettish flattery, the figures relax into the luxury of this plush interior.  The focus appears to be on the central woman's delight at having so many admirers, but Alvarez has a double message to convey.  In the background we see Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Apollo and Daphne (1622-1625) which still stands today in Rome's Palazzo Borghese.  To justify displaying this romantic pagan myth within the palace of Cardinals, Pope Urban VIII composed a moral couplet to be engraved on the base, "Those who love to pursue fleeting forms of pleasure, in the end find only leaves and bitter berries in their hands."  Alvarez's primary subjects seem pointedly oblivious to this message. The artist has positioned the sculpture in accordance with its original placement in the Palazzo, so that the act of entering the pictorial room, passing from the left of the sculpture to the right, would best allow the viewer to witness the sculptural metamorphosis of Daphne into a laurel tree.

Spanish genre paintings were avidly collected by Americans in the 19th century, with this work originaly belonging to J.P. Morgan of New York.