Sharjah: Osman Hassan
Joaquín Espalter (1809 – 1880) is a well-known Spanish painter who spent most of his career in the province of Catalonia/Madrid, primarily known for his portraits and historical scenes. Joaquin was born into a wealthy family, as his father was a merchant from Barcelona. The family lived in Steges to escape the war that raged between Madrid and Barcelona nearly three centuries ago. In 1823 and 1828, he decided to devote himself to painting.
Joaquín was best known as a portrait painter and was very popular with the local bourgeoisie for his simple and direct style. In addition to his many paintings he also created decorations for the Spanish Theater (1848) and painted murals for the Universidad Central (1853-1858) and the Palacio de Congreso de Deputados.
Joaquín was one of the favorite artists of the emerging bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century, so he knew how to capture his scenes in a real and accurate manner in terms of detail, and in a style that can be defined as pre-romantic rather than romantic. 1856, (Bonaventura Carles Aribo) 1844, and (Jorge Flaquer Family) 1845, all of which are in art museums spread across Spain, including the Catalan National Museum of Art.
* romantic
The painting (Jorge Flaquer’s Family), preserved in the Museum of Romance in Madrid, is considered one of his most famous drawings, due to the public and critical admiration it encountered.
After a short stay at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, Joaquín moved to Paris in 1829 and studied with Antoine-Jean Gros, then establishing his own style of painting, in Rome in 1833, where he became part of the group of Catalan painters associated with the Romantic movement with German roots «Nazaría». Which included Claudi Lorenzel and Pellegri Clavi, Joaquin has more than once expressed his admiration for Italian painting of the Renaissance.
Joaquín made several visits to Tuscany, and in 1839, he presented several works at a major exhibition in Florence, Italy.
In 1842 he settled in Madrid, and was appointed Academician of the Intellectual Property of Fine Arts in San Fernando, and in 1847, he founded with Federico Madrazo and the writer Eugenio de Ochoa an art magazine called (The Renaissance), Queen Isabel II appointed him honorary court painter, and in 1860, he was appointed Professor of Art at the Higher School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving.
The painting (The Family of Jorge Flaquer) is a portrait of the family of the banker Don Jorge Flaquer Pedrien inside a room. On the wall of the room at the top is a painting of an old man, Don Jaime Ciriola, father of Dona Josefa Ciriola Castilla. From left to right, Don Jorge appears in the painting sitting, covering himself with a bathrobe in shades of green and lined with red, and his son Mariano stands by him, who in turn appears dressed in a black coat, and puts his left hand on the edge of the chair on which his sister Sofia sits, who She appears in the painting, wearing a dress designed with squares, while she is sitting in front of a large-sized piano. Her younger sister Elisa, who wears a gray dress, also appears in the picture, while the mother, Dona Josefa, wears black clothes and holds a handkerchief in her hands.
Behind the family’s group photo, a simple wardrobe is visible in the family’s home in Madrid, on Carretas Street.
This painting by Joaquín represents an exceptional work designed by the artist with impeccable craftsmanship in terms of harmonious colors, and his ingenuity in achieving a painting with a great deal of color gradation that reflects a clear craft in the general landscape of portraiture.
* Exactly the same
The artist was keen to show the family in its natural form, that is, without affectation or artificiality. This is evidenced by the sobriety of the room and the furniture in it that matches what was prevalent among the new bourgeois class at the time, which seeks to imitate the heritage of the nobility, and is keen to perpetuate itself through what It has decorations or accessories decorated with the necessary elements of luxury and ostentation. However, this work tries to present the family in an image of simplicity and restraint, to eventually constitute a direct document to identify the daily outfit that families used to adorn with, and the artist in this image He offers no memorial allusion, but rather intends to present a work of the most realistic of paintings.
This was the first painting that the artist thought of starting his project with, and it is one of the most beautiful testimonies of the development of personal life with its special intimacy in the new bourgeois society, as if the artist wanted to say: “This is the family of Jorge Flaquer, this is Elisa Flaquer, the youngest daughter of the family , who married Don Miguel de la Vega-Inclan, and in 1858 gave birth to their first son, Benigno.
* background
Jorge Flaquer’s family enjoyed wide fame throughout Spain, and this fame stimulated more than one artist to draw members of it. Josefa and Jorge Flaquer appeared in a drawing by Antonio Esquivel, in addition to a bust of daughter Sofia by Pedro Hortigosa, and other painters.
