Spanish school of the second half of the 19th century

Spanish school of the second half of the XIX century.
"Portrait of a gentleman.
Oil on canvas.
Presents small tear in the central part and losses in the margins.
Measurements: 82,5 x 64 cm.
In this work we see a typical nineteenth-century portrait, with the gentleman sitting in the foreground. The gentleman wears a black suit and a white shirt with a high starched collar, with his gaze to infinity and a serious countenance. As in the rest of Europe, the portrait became in the 19th century the leading genre par excellence in Spanish painting, as a consequence of the new social structures that were established in the Western world throughout this century, embodying the maximum expression of the transformation of taste and mentality of the new clientele, which emerged among the nobility and the wealthy upper bourgeoisie, who would take the reins of history in this period. While official circles gave preponderance to other artistic genres, such as history painting, and the incipient collecting encouraged the profusion of costume paintings, portraiture monopolized the demand for painting destined for the more private sphere, as a reflection of the value of the individual in the new society. This genre embodies the permanent presence of the image of its protagonists, to be enjoyed in the intimacy of a studio, in the daily warmth of a family cabinet or presiding over the main rooms of the house.