Julio Romero de Torres

Doctor Eduardo Semprún, Madrid (acquired from the artist in 1922. Semprún was director of the Instituto Técnico de Higiene de Sanidad Militar in Madrid, a close friend of the artist and collector of his work)
Private Collection, Argentina
Private collection, Mexico
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner in 1938; thence by descent

Emiliano M. Aguilera, El Desnudo en el arte, 1932, p. 156, illustrated
Pedro Massa, Romero de Torres, Buenos Aires, 1943, n.p., listed; n.p., figs. 94 & 95, illustrated
Mercedes Valverde Candil & Ana Maria Piriz Salgado, Catalogo del Museo Julio Romero de Torres, Cordoba, 1989, p. 198, fig. 84, illustrated
Julio Romero de Torres. Símbolo, Materia y Obsesión, exh. cat., Cordoba, 2003, p. 104, illustrated

The canvas has not been lined. There is a light dimple in the canvas in the upper-left corner, a tiny spot of paint flaking in the lower-right, and some scattered spots of light frame rubbing at the extreme edges. Under ultra-violet light the old varnish layers fluoresce somewhat opaquely however there are no clearly visible signs of retouching. This painting is in good, virtually original condition, and its appearance would be greatly enhanced with a professional surface clean to address the old varnish layers. The colours in reality are richer and deeper than in the catalogue illustration, less pink and somewhat more yellowed overall owing to the old varnish. Presented in a decorative Spanish-style frame.
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Painted circa 1922. As with so many of Romero's paintings, the subject of the present work addresses a timeless predicament. Propped up on pillows, a young virginal girl reclines naked on a white linen sheet. Her classic pose reprises that of reclining nudes through the ages, from Giorgione and Titian to the affrontery of Manet's Olympia. Her innocence is implicit in the purity of the apple by her side; behind her a temptress taunts her with a playing car. But the young girl turns her head away from her nemesis to look out at the viewer. The question implicit in her enigmatic gaze: do I dare eat of the forbidden fruit?