Attributed to Bernardo Lorente.

Attributed to BERNARDO LORENTE GERMÁN (Seville, 1685 - 1757).
"Virgin of Carmen.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Work referenced in the bulletin of the Academy of the Conception of Valladolid. MUÑOZ NIETO, Enrique. Decor Carmeli. "Devotion to the Virgen del Carmen in 18th century Seville through pictorial examples". Boletín de la Real Academia de la Concepción, nº55 (2020) pp. 47-54.
Presents restorations.
Measurements: 73 x 67 cm; 89 x 82 cm (frame).
In this painting of the Virgin of Carmen with the Child Jesus, the scene unfolds with a tenderness and serenity that deeply recall the aesthetics of Bernardo Lorente, in fact the work is close both in aesthetics and composition to the painting of the Sevillian artist, which is in the convent of Santa Maria de Jesus (Seville), a work in which the same theme is treated. Although in this particular case the presence of the saints is obviated and only the Virgin and Child is presented. It is necessary to mention the article by Enrique Muñoz Nieto "La devoción a la Virgen del Carmen en la Sevilla del siglo XVIII a través de ejemplos pictóricos", which evidences the attribution of this work. In this painting the Virgin, crowned and wrapped in a light mantle that falls softly, holds the Child, who, with a delicate gesture, offers the Carmelite scapular to the spectator. There is no drama or show-off; everything in the composition breathes a restrained, intimate piety. The warm light caresses the faces, revealing an idealized and close beauty, as if the divinity were presented with the sweetness of the everyday. This resource, so typical of Lorente.

Bernardo Lorente Germán began his training with his father, also a painter, and later studied with Cristóbal López. When he finished his apprenticeship, he was so far ahead of his teachers and became so well known that when he traveled to Madrid, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the infant Don Felipe. This work was so well received that Queen Isabel de Farnesio gave him a series of prints by the French painter Charles Le Brun as a token of her gratitude. He was then proposed to be the king's painter but Lorente refused the position because he did not want to leave Seville.
He was named an individual of merit by the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1756. In Seville he was known as "the painter of the Pastoras", since he painted numerous times the theme of the Divine Shepherdess. He was also the main portraitist of the aristocracy of Seville, with works that show the French taste prevailing at the time, which coexist with others clearly indebted to Murillo, whose cottony forms and pastel colors, on the other hand beautiful, agreed perfectly with the subject of which Ceán Bermúdez makes Lorente Germán the creator, that of the Divine Shepherdess.
His best known works are kept in the Carthusian monastery of Jerez de la Frontera, and are spread throughout many churches in Úbeda and Baeza, as well as in the cathedral of Jaén, in the Louvre Museum in Paris and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville. He also painted still lifes and genre scenes, and became an accomplished master of the trompe l'oeil genre.