Carlos Luis Ribera y Fievee

CARLOS LUIS RIBERA Y FIEVEE (Rome, 1815 - Spain, 1891).
"Portrait of a girl". 1855.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the middle right area.
Measurements. 31,5 x 25 cm.
Child portrait starring a girl who is shown to the viewer accompanied by her toys. In the XIX century, the panorama of the European portrait was very varied, with numerous influences and schools. As in all genres, it was determined by the taste of the clientele, but also by the hand of the artist. It is in this century that a new concept of portraiture was born, one that would spread rapidly: the desire to capture the personality of the human being, beyond his or her social rank.
Carlos Luis Ribera y Fievee was born in Rome, son of Juan Antonio de Ribera, who was then a painter in the service of King Charles IV and Maria Luisa de Parma, who were his godparents. In 1819 they moved to Madrid because of his father's appointment as chamber painter to Ferdinand VII. It was thanks to his father that he began his training, later perfected at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where he saw the early recognition that his skills required. He continued his career as a painter, and also worked as an engraver (for example, for the magazine El Artista), being named Academician of Merit at the San Fernando Academy in 1835. This institution granted him a scholarship or pension to further his studies in Paris, where he studied with Paul Delaroche, and where he became friends with Federico de Madrazo (with him he triumphed in the 1839 Exhibition). In 1845 he returned to Madrid, where he worked as an assistant professor of Landscapes in the Special School of Fine Arts, being named Chamber Painter of Isabel II in 1846. Among other merits and recognitions, he was granted the Order of Carlos III in 1860, the position of professor of the Fine Arts Section and the direction of the School of Painting and Sculpture (1863 and 1869, respectively), etc. His works can be seen in prominent private collections, as well as in places such as the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, the Church of San Francisco el Grande and the Prado Museum in the same city, the Hermitage of San Roque in Navalcarnero, etc.