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拍品专文
This acutely observed painting of an Arab riffle merchant is Ricardo Villegas’s Orientalist masterpiece. Far more elaborate than the simpler figure paintings and portraits for which he is more usually known, it displays an extraordinary understanding of texture, light and colour.
The subject matter of the present work was treated by all the major Orientalist painters, but rarely to such harmonious effect. The composition is rhythmic and wonderfully balanced. The viewer's eye meanders across the centre of the composition, taking in a wealth of detail which is both precisely rendered, but painterly enough to convey a strong sense of plasticity and texture.
Ricardo Villegas y Cordero's personal and artistic life was strongly influenced by the artist’s elder brother, Jose Villegas y Cordero. It was Jose who at the tender age of 16 opened his parents minds to a career as an artist in 1860, when he was still only sixteen, by selling one of his works at the Exposición Sevillana for 2,000 Reales. After this fortuitous sale he was apprenticed to the painter José María Romero López, staying with him for two years before enrolling at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. Jose had paved the way for his younger brother, and following in his footsteps, Ricardo was equally inspired by the work of the Orientalist painter Mariano Fortuny.
The subject matter of the present work was treated by all the major Orientalist painters, but rarely to such harmonious effect. The composition is rhythmic and wonderfully balanced. The viewer's eye meanders across the centre of the composition, taking in a wealth of detail which is both precisely rendered, but painterly enough to convey a strong sense of plasticity and texture.
Ricardo Villegas y Cordero's personal and artistic life was strongly influenced by the artist’s elder brother, Jose Villegas y Cordero. It was Jose who at the tender age of 16 opened his parents minds to a career as an artist in 1860, when he was still only sixteen, by selling one of his works at the Exposición Sevillana for 2,000 Reales. After this fortuitous sale he was apprenticed to the painter José María Romero López, staying with him for two years before enrolling at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. Jose had paved the way for his younger brother, and following in his footsteps, Ricardo was equally inspired by the work of the Orientalist painter Mariano Fortuny.