Spanish school, ca. 1889

Spanish School, ca. 1889.
"The Swing."
Oil on panel.
Presents inscription on the back: "J. Miralles, Paris", 89".
Measurements: 27 x 20.5 cm; 45.5 x 39 cm (frame).
This work is modeled after the painting entitled "Spring" by the French painter Pierre Auguste Cot, which is in the collection of the MET in New York. The work shows a couple on a swing. The original work was exhibited at the 1873 Salon, and became Cot's most successful painting, widely admired and copied in prints, fans, porcelains and tapestries. Its first owner, hardware magnate John Wolfe, gave it pride of place in his Manhattan mansion. Wolfe's cousin, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, later commissioned Cot to paint a similar scene, The Storm, which is now also part of the Met's collection (87.15.134).
In this case the piece is signed, so it may be a copy by the artist Francisco Miralles. A disciple of the members of the first generation of Catalan realists. Little is preserved of the production of Miralles in this early stage, although the dozen paintings that we have tell us of a young painter who quickly learns to treat the figure with mastery, still little interested in the landscape. Settled in Paris since the mid-1860s (around 1865-66), it is possible that he studied with Courbet on the advice of Martí Alsina, who also trained with the French master. Due to these influences, his youthful style, until the late seventies, is still vigorously realistic. Later he evolved towards a style of feminine elegance, typically fin-de-siècle, with a technique of fortunist influence.