* Eugenio Lucas Velázquez Madrid 1817 - 1870

While little is known of Eugenio Lucas's formal training, he did spend considerable time copying the works of Velázquez and Goya at the Spanish Royal Palaces. In 1853 he was appointed Pintor de Cámera Honorario to Queen Isabella II, and he was made Knight of the Order of Carlos III as a reward for his idealized portrait of Pedro de Valdivia, which the Spanish government gave as a present to the cathedral of Santiago de Chile. Velázquez's influence on Lucas's work is clear from the dark palette, the loose brushstroke, his choice of poses and his compositional structure. The present work clearly shows its debt to Velázquez's celebrated masterpiece at the Prado, Las Meninas of 1656. Lucas created four known versions of Las Meninas of which the present painting is considered to be the superior.

This painting serves at once as an homage to Velázquez and as a fine example of Lucas’ individual artistic style. Using vigorous, impressionistic brushstrokes and focusing less on the details of the setting and more on the temperament of the subjects, Lucas creates a modern version of the Spanish masterpiece. By incorporating a strong sense of immediacy and emotion to a work that also evokes admiration for past masters, Lucas’s Las Meninas embodies the ideals of Nineteenth century European paintings.