English school; 18th century.

English school; XVIII century.
"Portrait of a lady with a dog".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 90 x 71 cm; 115 x 95 cm (frame).
Portrait of lady that presents the half body of an adult woman with a dog. The piece is inscribed on a neutral background of dark tonality as the rest of the composition. These characteristics highlight the pearly color of her skin, which becomes the main focus of the illumination of the piece, as well as the dog on her lap. A resource through which the author enhances the corporeality and luminosity of the figure. The position of the body, upright and with a straight back, combines a casual, natural appearance with an air of distinguished authority. In addition, the portrait directs her gaze directly to the viewer, establishing a relationship with him.
In the 18th century, the panorama of European portraiture was varied and broad, with numerous influences and largely determined by the taste of both the clientele and the painter himself. However, in this century a new concept of portraiture was born, which would evolve throughout the century and unify all the national schools: the desire to capture the personality of the human being and his character, beyond his external reality and his social rank, in his effigy. During the previous century, portraiture had become consolidated among the upper classes, and was no longer reserved only for the court. For this reason, the formulas of the genre, as the 17th century progressed and even more so in the 18th century, became more relaxed and moved away from the ostentatious and symbolic official representations typical of the Baroque apparatus. On the other hand, the eighteenth century will react against the rigid etiquette of the previous century with a more human and individual conception of life, and this will be reflected in all areas, from the furniture that becomes smaller and more comfortable, replacing the large gilded and carved furniture, to the portrait itself, which will come to dispense, as we see here, of any symbolic or scenographic element to capture the individual instead of the character.