Lot 438
  • 438

RAIMUNDO DE MADRAZO Y GARRETA | Portrait of Mrs. Clotilde de Cándamo and her Son Carlos

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
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Description

  • Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta
  • Portrait of Mrs. Clotilde de Cándamo and her Son Carlos 
  • signed R. Madrazo and dated 74 (upper left)
  • oil on canvas
  • 63 1/8 by 45 1/2 in.
  • 160.3 by 115.6 cm

Provenance

Carlos González de Cándamo y Iriarte, Paris (commissioned directly from the artist, 1874) 
Carlos González de Cándamo y Rivero, Paris 
Private Collection, London
Private Collection, Madrid (by 1984) 
Private Collection, Barcelona 
Sale: Balclis, Barcelona, March 26, 2009, lot 1346

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Spanish Paintings, November 1920-January 1921, no. 281 (lent by Carlos González de Cándamo y Rivero) 

Literature

Carlos González López and Montserrat Martí Ayxelà, eds.,  El Mundo de Los Madrazo: colección de la Comunidad de Madrid, exh. cat., Real Monasterio de Las Comendadoras de Santiago el Mayor, Madrid, March 28-May 27, 2007, p. 351, illustrated 

Condition

Lined. The work presents beautifully and the colors appear bright and fresh. There is barely visible, finely patterned craquelure in the darkest blue pigments of the mother's dress at lower right. Under UV: an uneven green varnish, of which the figures have been cleaned, fluoresces. There are some finely applied pin dots of retouching on the mother's forehead, along her jaw line, and above her upper lip, with a small diagonal line of retouching underneath her proper right eye. A few additional scattered dots of finely applied inpainting are evident around the proper left arm of her dress, in her red rose and on the left side of her blue gown; and there are slightly larger brushy areas of retouching visible in the lower section of her gown. On the child there are finely applied retouches to his jaw line, above his proper right ear and above his eyes. There is broad, brushy fluorescence in the upper left corner and some brushy retouches at upper center. There is a probable repair extending from the center of the right edge up approximately 16 inches; an 'F' shaped repair approximately 7 inches long in the extreme lower right; and a vertical repair extending from the extreme left lower edge. Overall the restorations mentioned above have been carefully completed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

While Raimundo de Madrazo’s oeuvre inspired a generation of international society portrait painters, such as John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Giovanni Boldini, and Joaquín Sorolla, the forthright gaze of the sitter and the artist’s opulent attention to surface invites an immediate comparison of this Portrait of Mrs. Clotilde de Cándamo and her Son Carlos to the grand portraits of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.  For inspiration, Madrazo had only to look as far as the work of his father, Federico Madrazo, who had been a student and friend of the artist’s. Indeed, when the younger Madrazo painted the present work, his father was still completing extraordinary commissions, such as the elaborate Isabel Alvarez Montes, Second Marchioness of Valderas (1868, Museo del Prado), in which the influence of Ingres’ is clear.

The sitters, Mrs. Clotilde de Cándamo (née Rivero or Ascencio de Rivero) and her son Carlos, were the wife and child of the wealthy Peruvian Ambassador to Paris, Carlos González de Cándamo y Iriarte, a friend and supporter of Madrazo (as was his brother, Manuel de Cándamo y Iriarte, President of Peru in 1895 and again from 1903 until his death in 1904). The young Carlos was born in London in 1871 and at the time of this portrait was just three-years-old. He was later a noted sportsman, becoming the first Peruvian to take part in the Olympic Games (Paris, 1900) and to join the International Olympic Committee, and then, following in his father’s footsteps, a diplomat. Carlos was appointed Envoy Extraordinary from Peru to the United Kingdom and, some years later, France. In that capacity, he was one of the signers of the treaties promulgated by the Hague Convention of 1907 and, more significantly, of the Versailles Treaty of 1919. He died in Paris in 1946.

Madrazo places his figures against a spare background, so that their features clearly register. The elegantly coiffed Clotilde looks directly out of the canvas while her son seems entranced by her. The exquisite quality of Madrazo’s painting is evident in the varied textures, such as the two brilliant roses on her chest, her gleaming gold bracelets, the multi-colored bow on Carlos’ shoulder and the fur robe casually draped over the couch. Most importantly, the satin sheen of the magnificent blue dress that dominates the composition, may be an homage to Ingres’ iconic portraits of Louise de Broglie, Countess d’Haussonville (1845, The Frick Collection, New York) and the subsequent painting of her sister, Joséphine-Éléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn Princesse de Broglie (1851-53, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

Portrait of Mrs. Clotilde de Cándamo and her Son Carlos, as well as another portrait by Madrazo, were included in the Exhibition of Spanish Paintings at the Royal Academy, London, in 1920, just a few months after the painter’s death. In this context the works helped to bookend an extraordinary lineage of Spanish portraiture, beginning with Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya.