Manuel Cabral y Aguado Bejarano

MANUEL CABRAL Y AGUADO BEJARANO (Seville, 1827 - 1891).
"Sevillian woman".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 53,5 x 43 cm.
The brushstroke, very careful, reflects a great amount of details. The light does not show a too powerful focus, providing a soft and harmonious atmosphere to the whole work, in which the protagonist is hieratic before the spectator, adopting a somewhat restrained gesture as well. The artist's own characteristics to which is added the costumbrista theme that was very much to the taste of Manuel Cabral.
Manuel Cabral y Aguado Bejarano trained first with his father, the painter Antonio Cabral Bejarano, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel de Hungría, in his hometown, where he would eventually become a professor and academician. Throughout his career he took part in numerous official exhibitions, among them the National Fine Arts Exhibitions of Madrid in 1858, 1860 and 1867, in which he was distinguished with honorable mention. He was even named honorary painter to Queen Isabel II. Although he is a painter mainly known for his Andalusian costumbrista works, and in fact one of the best representatives of Andalusian costumbrismo within Spanish Romanticism, Cabral also cultivated history, religious and portrait painting. His scenes of processions and pilgrimages, always of costumbrista character, achieved great success both in the Andalusian capital and in Madrid. Cabral sought revelry and drama, but he also provided typical testimonies, reinforced with a detailed vision of clothing, poses and buildings. Examples of his extensive work include "El Corpus en Sevilla", "Galanteo", "En la Feria de Sevilla" or "Fiesta en el cortijo", among a long list in which we also find a large number of portraits. He is currently represented in the Prado Museum, the National Museum of Havana, the Reales Alcazares of Seville, the Romantic Museum of Madrid, the Academy of Fine Arts, the City Hall and the University Library of Seville and the Museum of Fine Arts of Cadiz.