Lot 149: Asensio Juliá, El Pescadoret (Valencia 1767-1816 Madrid)

Portrait of José Camarón y Meliá (1760-1819), half-length, holding a portfolio
inscribed 'D. n Jph. Camaron y Meliá en la hedad ve 38.A. s' (lower left, on the portfolio)
oil on canvas
36 x 27 7/8 in. (91.4 x 70.8 cm.)

Madrid, Licéo Artistico y Literario, Catálogo de las obras de pintura, escultura y arquitectura presentadas á esposicion en junio de 1846, y ejecutadas por los profesores existentes y los que han fallecido en ci presente siglo, 1846, room 2, no. 27, as Asensio Juliá.

A. Mayer, Francisco de Goya, Munich, 1923, p. 188, no. 222, pl. 91, as Goya.
E. Lafuente Ferrari, Antecedentes, coincidencias e influencias del arte de Goya, Madrid, 1947, p. 341, no. 27, as Asensio Juliá.
J. Gudiol, Goya 1746-1828, Paris, 1970, I, pp. 281-2, no. 410; III, pp. 542-3, pl. 650-1, as Goya (with incorrect mesurements).

Don Felipe Calvo, Madrid (according to Mayer, loc. cit.).
with M. Knoedler, London.
Contini Bonacossi collection, Florence.

This portrait was accepted as by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes by Mayer, Beruete and Gudiol who in his catalogue raisonné listed and illustrated it with a full attribution to Goya, enthusing: 'Goya a travaillé avec soin la main qui tient un porte-crayon, ainsi que la décoration', and, with reference to the sfumato effect employed by the artist, adding '...Les valeurs picturales conservent leur importance, et les traces du pinceau sont perceptibles en de nombreux détails dans la plus grande partie de l'oeuvre'.
However, the attribuition is not supported by current Goya experts. William Jordan has suggested, orally, that the picture may correspond to the one listed as Retrato de D. José Juan Camarón by Ascensio Juliá in the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Licéo Artístico y Literario in Madrid in 1846 (loc. cit.).

Known as 'El Pescadoret' or the Little Fisherman, the artist Asensio Juliá, a Valencian, was likely to have been a pupil of Goya and certainly knew him by 1798, probably the year he was painted by the latter standing by a scaffold, dressed in his work clothes with his paints and brushes on the floor beside him (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) and, coincidentally, the year of the present lot. It has been suggested that the picture shows Juliá in the Church of San Antonio de la Florida, Madrid, where he may have assisted Goya with the fresco decoration. Juliá also made engravings of military allegories and protraits of political figures such as Ferdinand VII of Spain. A Portrait of Sir Samford Whittingham, has been attributed to him (see E. Sullivan, Goya and the Arts of His Time, exhibition catalogue, Meadows Museum, 1982-1983, no. I.26).

We are grateful to Dr. William Jordan for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

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