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The companion to this picture illustrates the quiet spacious interior of a café, also with high ceilings supported by columns, which has been identified as the Parnasillo at Café del Príncipe, located next to the Madrid theatre of the same name, today the Teatro Español. Several customers enjoy their drinks, alone or in lively gatherings around pedestal tables. As such places were frequented chiefly by men, only one woman appears to the right of the composition, her head covered in a hairnet.

The fashion sported by the gentlemen---top hats, abundant locks of short hair, shirts with pointed stiff collars and swallowtail bow ties---sets both scenes in the years 1860-1865. The gas lighting, widespread in houses and business premises in Madrid after 1860, supports this dating. The theatrical approach, the execution of the figures and the skill in placing small groups of moving characters in the pictorial space are the main features of Ricardo Balaca's oeuvre.

Indeed, Balaca devoted a great part of his career to historical compositions studded with figures, usually based on military and war subjects, which called for special skill in the introduction of masses of moving figures in extensive scenes. In the mid-19th century he became a graphic chronicler of the Carlist wars and a well-known painter of cityscapes, a motif that also appeared in many of the drawings and illustrations he produced for periodical publications of his time. [José Luis Díez]

Selected bibliography

• Pantorba, Benardino de. "Antonio María Esquivel", Arte Español : revista de la Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte, Segundo Cuatrimestre. 1959. p. 168. (Como obra de Antonio María Esquivel).
• Lasterra, Crisanto de. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : catálogo descriptivo : sección de arte antiguo. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1969. p. 39, n° cat. 83. (Con el título El café, y atribuido a Antonio María Esquivel)
• Bengoechea, Javier de. Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao. Bilbao, La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, 1978. p. 233. (Como obra de Antonio María Esquivel)
• Spanish Paintings of 18th & 19th Century : Goya and his Time [Cat. exp.]. Tokyo, The Seibu Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 176, 177, 220, n° cat. 57. (Como obra de Antonio María Esquivel)
• Tesoros del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : pintura, 1400-1939 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, El Viso, 1989. p. 97, n° cat. 33.
• Gómez-Moreno, María Elena. Pintura y escultura españolas del siglo XIX. Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1993. p. 274. (Como obra de Antonio María Esquivel).
• Sagasta y el liberalismo progresista en España [Cat. exp.]. Logroño, Cultural Rioja, 2002. p. 165. (Como obra de Antonio María Esquivel).
• Liberalismo y Romanticismo en tiempos de Isabel II [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, 2004. p. 127, 390. (Como obra de Antonio María Esquivel). N° cat. 144
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 108-109. (Atribuido a Ricardo Balaca)
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 108-109.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 108-109.
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Salamanca, Caja Duero, 2006. pp. 162-163, n° cat. 38. (Atribuido a Ricardo Balaca)
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana ; Caja Duero, 2006. pp. 162-163, n° cat. 38. (Atribuido a Ricardo Balaca)
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Salamanca, Caja Duero, 2007. pp. 162-163, n° cat. 38. (Atribuido a Ricardo Balaca)
• 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. 304-308, n° cat. 57.
• Ciudadanos : el nacimiento de la política en España, 1808-1869 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Pablo Iglesias, 2009. p. 188.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. pp. 108-109, n° cat. 75b.
• Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. pp. 108-109, n° cat. 75b.
• Valencianos 1812 : constitución y libertades [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Consorcio de Museos de la Comunidad Valenciana, 2012. p. 208.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. pp. 108-109.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. pp. 108-109.
• Concepción Arenal : la pasión humanista [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional ; Acción Cultural Española, 2020. pp. 187, 235, n° cat. 240.