Philippine school; 19th century.
"Portrait of a lady.
Oil on canvas.
It presents breakage and slight faults on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 37 x 30 cm; 44,5 x 38 cm (frame).
Portrait of female bust, in which the protagonist turns slightly her face directing her look towards an unspecified point that is outside the surface of the painting. The young lady is notable for the delicacy and fineness of her features, her white skin, which lends luminosity to the scene, and her neat dress, adorned with lace and matched by the floral headdress she wears in her hairstyle. All these features speak of a lady who belongs to high society. The dominant colour range revolves around the sober, restrained tones typical of the portrait painting of the time. This portrait painting followed the aesthetic patterns of the West, which had a great influence on the academic school that developed in the Philippines.
In the 19th century, portraiture became the genre par excellence of Spanish painting and, in the case in point, of the Philippine colonists, as a result of the new social structures established in the Western world. While official circles gave preponderance to other artistic genres, such as history painting, and the incipient collectors encouraged the profusion of genre paintings, portraiture monopolised the demand for painting intended for the more private sphere, as a reflection of the value of the individual in the new society. This genre embodies the permanent presence of the image of its protagonists, to be enjoyed in the privacy of a studio, in the everyday warmth of a family cabinet or presiding over the main rooms of the house.