José Casado del Alisal

JOSÉ CASADO DEL ALISAL (Villada, Palencia, 1832 - Madrid, 1886).
"The visit", 1872-1882.
Oil on canvas.
Attached historical artistic report.
It has slight damage to the frame.
It retains the original framing with labels of the nineteenth and twentieth century and inscriptions (Delclaux and F729).
-Label of the Delegated Board of seizure and protection of the artistic treasure, inventory number: 7575.
-Informative label "D. José Casado del Alisal".
-Label with number 89.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 60 x 80 cm; 80 x 101 cm (frame).
Provenance:
- Marquis of Portugalete-Duke of Bailen.
- Marquis of Riscal
- Private collection, Spain (Delclaux family).
Bibliography:
- "J. CASADO DEL ALISAL.- 775 .- La conversation (à Mr. le Marquis de Portugalete). J. Laurent y Cia. Madrid."
- "Ilustración Española y Americana", Year 19, n. 29, August 8, 1875, p.73. With the title "Una visita de confianza" (A visit of confidence).
- 2º Libro Inventario de Cuadros, desde el 1 hasta el 13089" (preserved in the Ministry of Culture). Inventory number 7575.
The work of José Casado del Alisal, a 19th century history painter and portraitist, is an outstanding example of his academic mastery applied to the evocation of genre scenes with historical background. The canvas, painted around the 1870s, shows the interior of a domestic space where a lady of noble bearing receives a visit from an elegantly attired gentleman, while a greyhound, a symbol of social prestige, curiously observes the interaction. The environment is carefully configured: the checkered pavement, the tapestry covering the back wall, the buffet table with its embroidered cloth, the chest of ironwork, the mirror and the glass plate make up a material repertoire that refers to the material culture of the Modern Age. Architectural details such as the window with decorated shutters and the Flemish chandelier complete the atmosphere of refinement and historical accuracy. The characters reinforce the narrative character of the scene: the knight, dressed in a golilla, cape and riding boots, alludes to the courtly and chivalrous tradition, while the lady wears a "lifting garment", a large and elegant garment for domestic use that highlights her status. The composition articulates a diagonal dynamism, perceptible in the arrangement of the dress, the direction of the light and the gazes of the protagonists, which at the same time are balanced in a triangular structure with vertex in the lamp. The lighting emphasizes the woman's face, placing her as the focus of the representation, while the chromatic range of ochre and indigo, interrupted by the red accents in the male clothing and the flower on the lady's chest, provides contrast and visual drama. This combination of formal precision, intimate atmosphere and richness of detail makes the work an exercise in idealized historical reconstruction, while at the same time responding to the aesthetic and academic values that Casado del Alisal cultivated throughout his career. Commissioned for a Madrid palace and later acquired by the Duke of Bailén, the painting not only evidences the social and artistic prestige of its author, but also the demand for a historicist art that, in the middle of the 19th century, sought to link the present with the cultural splendor of the past.
José Casado del Alisal began his training at the School of Drawing in Palencia, and then continued his studies at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid. In 1855 he was granted a scholarship to Rome and later moved to France, where he painted "El juramento de las Cortes de Cádiz", which decorates the front wall of the hemicycle of the Congress of Deputies. He was also one of those in charge of painting the basilica of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid, and eventually became director of the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Throughout his career, Casado del Alisal regularly attended the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, and won an extraordinary first-class prize in 1860 for the Nazarene-influenced painting "Last Moments of Ferdinand IV, the Emplaced". He was a famous history painter.