English school of the early 18th century."Portrait of Mr. Smith of Torrington."Oil on canvas. Relined painting.With 18th century frame.This piece belongs to the collection of the Hotel Marbella Club.Measurements: 97 x 69 cm; 118 x 90 cm (frame).It was in the 18th century when English portraiture reached its highest level. The work we are dealing with shows the rococo taste of the English high social class for portraits in the most sophisticated rooms of their palaces. On this occasion the absolute protagonist is Mr. Smith of Torrington, an English nobleman who deliberately poses for the painter, dressed in a rich doublet embroidered with fine gold threads and reddish tones covered by a gray coat. The protagonist rests his right arm on a sumptuous baroque table with a marble top, covered with paper documents that attest to his high social rank. The portrait is contextualized inside a rich room decorated in the classical manner, an ostentatious interior cortile with lateral columns and arcades that open onto a large outdoor garden. The setting is completed by stone busts that denote the artist's knowledge of Classical Antiquity, as well as by a sumptuous mosaic pavement. With a precise drawing, the artist's technique shows a polished finish, where he treats the details with meticulousness and enlivens them with cheerful tones, like the clothes of the person being represented. The changes that prevailed in England at that time led to social leaps, opening a new relationship between the bourgeois classes and art. Artists like Joshua Reynolds (England, 1723-1792) or Thomas Gainsborough (England, 1727-1788), faithful defenders of the English portrait, aspired to put this genre at the same level as history painting.