Portrait of the Count of Campo Alegre - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Portrait of the Count of Campo Alegre

Zuloaga, Ignacio

Eibar, Gipuzkoa, 26/07/1870-Madrid, 31/10/1945

Oil on canvas

91.5 x 60.5 cm

Igº. Zuloaga (bottom left hand corner)

c. 1892

Late 19th century

82/2520

Usucapion in 1939

The sitter appears before the background of a tree-filled garden, sitting on a wicker chair, elegantly dressed in a white summer suit with a red cravat, which matches the ribbon on his flexible brownish-grey hat, with a cane and fob and locket, a ring and gold cufflinks, in a light that is muffled by the tree canopy. He is looking rightward. The posture of the Count of Campo Alegre, the way he is holding the cane and the informality of certain aspects of his garb reveal an indolent refinement that permeates the entire painting.

His framing reveals the influence of photography because of the somewhat rudimentary rendering that shows the unusual fit of the composition: Villamarciel's left hand is not showing, and his legs are cut off high up, violating the rules of academic framing. On the other hand, he takes up much of the space of the painting. The colours are light and delicate, as is the treatment of light. This painting in no way hints at the author's rough and theatrical mature style; in fact, it could not be more opposite.

This work is part of a series of paintings from Zuloaga's youth, some of which the painter later destroyed, in which he was trying to find his aesthetic identity by testing different pathways, which he soon left as they did not match his temperament. In fact, this one shows, to a greater or lesser extent, some of the influences he got in his first few years in Paris, despite the mastery with which he has assimilated them. The composition's lack of centring, as mentioned above, was a characteristic of his style at that time which he inherited from Degas, his friend and teacher, and became even more noticeable in his works immediately after this one. The trees in the background are also quite similar to those painted by Émile Bernard in his famous synthesist painting made in Pont-Aven in 1888, Madeleine in the Bois d'Amour (Musée d'Orsay, Paris).

Zuloaga's painting is simplified and elementary, with clearly outlined zones of colour, revealing a kind of modernity, perhaps because of its proximity to synthetism. However, the refined, cosmopolitan spirit of the work, revealed in the figure's exquisite harmony with nature, the serene surrounding light, which distils a pleasant wellbeing, and the rendering of an instant of mundane, bourgeois beatitude, never again appeared in Zuloaga's work. His lack of interest in capturing another character of the sitter beyond his dandyism, his apparent lack of conflict and especially his sensuality tip the scales in favour of formal or abstract elements. In short, Portrait of the Count of Campo Alegre is a good example of the painter's early period and serves as a contrast to the portraits with which Zuloaga cultivated his large market during the first third of the 20th century, in which the constructive scheme was organised based on two planes lacking an environment: the figures in the foreground and the symbolic background behind them. [Javier Novo]

Selected bibliography

  • Beryes, Ignacio de. Ignacio Zuloaga o una manera de ver a España. Barcelona, Iberia, 1947.
  • Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 132. (Con el título Retrato del marqués de Villamarciel).
  • Milhou, Mayi. Ignacio Zuloaga et la France, 1870-1945 . St. Loubes, France, [s. n.], 1981. fig. 18.
  • Ignacio Zuloaga, 1870-1945 [Cat. exp.]. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Eusko Jaurlaritza = Gobierno Vasco, 1990. pp. 154-155
  • Ignacio Zuloaga : 1870-1945 [Cat. exp.]. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Gobierno Vasco, Departamento de Cultura y Turismo, 1990. pp. 41-71.
  • Lafuente Ferrari, Enrique. La vida y el arte de Ignacio Zuloaga. Barcelona, Editorial Planeta, 1990. p. 492, n° cat. 59
  • L'Europe des peintres : 1893 [Cat. exp.]. París, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1993..
  • De Fortuny à Picasso : trente ans de peinture espagnole 1874-1906 [Cat. exp.]. Paris, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1994. p. 114, n° cat. 61.
  • Tradition and modernity in basque painting, 1880-1939 = Tradición y modernidad en la pintura vasca, 1880-1939 [Cat. exp.]. Southampton ; Bilbao, Southampton City Art Gallery ; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1997. pp. 29, 108, 110, n° cat. 17.
  • Sorolla & Zuloaga : dos visiones para un cambio de siglo [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1997. p. 86, n° cat. 5.
  • Juan de la Encina y la trama del arte vasco [Folleto]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1998. s .p.
  • Tradición y modernidad en la pintura vasca : en las colecciones del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Autoridad Portuaria de Valencia, 1999. p. 64-65.
  • El retrato elegante [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Museo Municipal, 2000. p. 140, n° cat. 86.
  • Gauguin y los orígenes del simbolismo [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2004. p. 14.
  • De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Salamanca, Caja Duero, 2006. pp. 252-253, n° cat. 65. (Con el título Retrato del conde de Villamarciel)
  • De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Caja Duero, 2006. pp. 252-253, n° cat. 65. (Con el título Retrato del conde de Villamarciel)
  • De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Salamanca, Caja Duero, 2007. pp. 252-253, n° cat. 65. (Con el título Retrato del conde de Villamarciel)
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 56-58.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 56-57.
  • De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 528-530, n° cat. 118.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 55-57, n° cat. 25a.
  • Anselmo Guinea, 1855-1906 : los orígenes de la modernidad en la pintura vasca [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 180, il.
  • Arte japonés y japonismo [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 79, il.
  • Días de verano : de Sorolla a Hopper [Cat. exp.]. Málaga, Fundación Palacio Villalón, 2014. pp. 132-133, 205, n° cat. 50.
  • "Zuloaga en el París de la Belle Epoque, 1889-1914", Cuaderno de exposiciones. Otoño 2017. pp. 6, 8, il.
  • Zuloaga en el París de la Belle Epoque, 1889-1914 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, 2017. pp. 36-37, 88-89, n° cat. 2.
  • Zuloaga : carácter y emoción [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Fundación Bancaja, 2018. pp. 18-19, 80, sin n° cat.
  • Bilboko Museoaren alfabetoa = El alfabeto del Museo de Bilbao = The alphabet of the Bilbao Museum = L'alphabet du Musée de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 260, 269, n° cat. 150.
  • Zuloaga, 1870-1945 [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2019. pp. 28, 152, 189, 190-191, 313, n° cat. 10.
  • Fusi, Juan Pablo... [et. al.]. El verdadero Ignacio Zuloaga. Zumaia, Gipuzkoa, Fundación Zuloaga, 2020. p. 90, il.