Spanish School of the XVIII century.

Spanish School of the XVIII century.
Attributed to LUIS PARET Y ALCAZAR (Madrid, 1746 - 1799).
"Portrait of a gentleman.
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 70 x 60 cm; 93 x 83 cm (frame).
Attached report of D. José Maria Arnaiz as Luis Paret.

Luis Paret y Alcazar was one of the few Spanish artists who in the second half of the eighteenth century painted in the French Rococo style. Described by some as the Spanish Watteau, today he is best known for his cabinet paintings for the Infante Don Luis, younger brother of Carlos III, and his views of northern Spanish ports, similar to those of Claude-Joseph Vernet. Paret, a contemporary of Francisco de Goya, was born in Madrid of a French father and Spanish mother. At the age of ten he entered the Royal Academy of San Fernando, where he was a student of Antonio González Velázquez, a follower of the Neapolitan painter and director of the Academy, Corrado Giaquinto. In 1763 he attracted the attention of the Infante Don Luis, who took him under his tutelage and paid for his three-year stay in Rome. His style was also influenced by two French artists living in Spain in the 1760s: Augustin Duflos, the king's jeweler, who gave him drawing lessons, and Charles François de la Traverse, who was his teacher when Paret returned from Rome in 1766. From Traverse, Paret borrowed the impasto and pastel tones, constant features of his painting throughout his career. The artist's relationship with the Infante Don Luis came to a disastrous end in 1775, when he was accused of procuring young women for his royal patron and Charles III banished him from Madrid. He lived three years in exile in Puerto Rico, and in 1778 he returned to Spain and settled in Bilbao, where he remained until 1789. In addition to supplying religious paintings to local churches, he designed several public buildings and fountains for Bilbao and Pamplona. He also made a series of views of the ports of Bermeo, Pasajes and San Sebastian for the decoration of the country houses of Charles III. In 1789 he was finally able to return to Madrid, after the death of the monarch the previous year. In 1792 he was appointed vice-secretary of the Royal Academy and secretary of its architecture commission. His architectural plans and drawings demonstrate a remarkable mastery of theory, but in general they are flimsy and of little interest. When asked for his opinion on reforming the methods of teaching painting at the Academy, Paret upheld the neoclassical principles that Mengs had introduced in the 1760s, in a formulaic response that seems to indicate that he had lost the spark of originality that distinguished his early paintings. His Self-Portrait in the Studio, in the Prado, gives an idea of his eccentric character and his intellectual hobbies. It shows him elegantly dressed and seated at the work table in his studio, with his palette on the floor next to a thick volume, a sanguine drawing and a folder. On the easel rests an oval painting of a shipwreck, perhaps alluding to a nautical adventure he experienced. On a table, on the other side of the room, there are two antique busts, possibly of Seneca and Ovid. It is known that he had a great fondness for classical literature and was fluent in Greek and Latin. In Rome he translated into Spanish the Dialogues of Luciano de Samosata, and signed in Greek many of his cabinet pictures. In the inventory of his library there are abundant works of classical authors, some in original version, and also albums of engravings, particularly of works by Hogarth, Bourdon, Stubbs, Vernet and Guercino.