Francisco Jover y Casanova

FRANCISCO JOVER Y CASANOVA (Muro, Alicante, 1836 - Madrid, 1890).
"Valenciana".
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Frame of the nineteenth century with some flaws in the gilding.
Measurements: 32 x 19 cm; 44 x 31 cm (frame).

We find a painting with a precise brushstroke. It represents a woman dressed as a huertana (what would be the current costume of fallera), with a basket of roses under her arm. The woman does not look at the viewer, but directs her gaze to the side. She stands in front of a landscape background with palm trees that takes us into an orientalist world. Nothing in this composition is casual, neither the pose, nor the place where she is, it is clearly a studio portrait.
Francisco Jover y Casanova studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid and in the workshop of Federico de Madrazo, with whom he began to paint history. From a very young age he took part in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, being distinguished in the edition of 1864 with third medal for the work "Last moments of Felipe II". Later he would complete his training in Rome, at the Academia Chigi and in the studio of Mariano Fortuny. Of his Roman production, his small format genre paintings with oriental themes and period and historical scenes stand out, such as "The Conquest of Oran" and "The Peace of Cambray", with which he obtained the third medal in the National of 1871. Settled permanently in Madrid, Jover y Casanova combined painting with teaching. During his last years he devoted himself to the restoration of the Royal Monastery of Nuestra Señora de Fresdelval, north of Burgos, and took up history painting again with "La jura de la Constitución por S.M. la reina regente, doña María Cristina", a painting that was completed by Joaquín Sorolla. Francisco Jover y Casanova is represented in the Prado Museum, the Ministry of Development, the Council of State, the Army Museum, the Royal Academy of History, the Institute of Spain, the Universities of Santiago de Compostela, Valladolid and Central de Barcelona, the Senate, the Museum of La Rioja and the Supreme Court.