Lot 362: BENITO ESPINÓS VALENCIA 1748 - 1818

a pair, the former signed and dated lower right: Espinos f.^t Año/1812, the latter signed lower right: Espinos F: and both inscribed by the artist (?) on the reverse: S^r. Benito Espinós lo pintó/Agosto.26.27.350

both oil on panel

Quantity: 2

STILL LIFES OF ROSES, ANEMONIES, TULIPS, STOCKS, POPPIES AND NARCISSI IN A POTTERY VASE, WITH LILIES, BROOM, CARNATIONS AND MORNING GLORY STREWN OVER A STONE LEDGE, TOGETHER WITH A STONE RELIEF OF PUTTI, A BOOK (PALOMINO, VOL. II), A WINDOW UPPER LEFT;
STILL LIFE OF NARCISSI, DELPHINIUMS, CARNATIONS AND ROSES IN A BASKET, WITH LILIES, POPPIES, CONVULVULUS, CARNATIONS AND ROSES STREWN ACROSS A STONE LEDGE, TOGETHER WITH A FIGURATIVE STONE TABLET, A BROKEN POTTERY VASE SPILLING WATER, A GLASS VASE, A TERRACOTTA URN WITH CLEMATIS AND A SHEET OF PAPER, A LANDSCAPE BEYOND

each: 62.2 by 89.5 cm.; 24 1/2 by 34 1/4 in.

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT VALENCIAN COLLECTION

The Royal Collection of Queen Isabel II of Spain (reigned 1833 - 1868);
From whose family descendants acquired directly by the present owner.

These impressive still lifes can be ranked among the finest and most ambitious creations by the leading flower painter working in Valencia during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Benito Espinós. Hitherto unrecorded, they are believed to have once formed part of the royal collection of Isabel II.

During the last quarter of the 18th century an important school of still life painting flourished in Valencia. Although the city had enjoyed a strong tradition of still life painting during the 17th century (the principal exponent being Tomás Hiepes), this had disappeared towards the end of the Golden Age. In 1768 however a new painting academy, La Academia de San Carlos, was established in the city and in 1778 a royal decree created within the academy the Sala de Flores, with places for twelve students. The principal purpose of the Sala de Flores was to train artists to produce floral motifs and designs for the region's silk industry, which had suffered a dramatic decline due to the importation of luxury designs from France. Benito Espinós, having trained with his father, entered the academy as a young artist and in the annual competition of 1783 won first prize. The following year he was appointed director and Maestro de Flores to the Sala de Flores, which in the same year became the Escuela de Flores y Ornatos Aplicados a los Tejidos (School of Flowers and Ornaments Applied to Textiles). Espinós remained director of the Academy for over thirty years (until 1815), during which time he became the dominant figure in Valencian still life painting. Although he appears never to have received a royal appointment, he presented a number of his works to members of the royal family. In 1788, for example, he gave three flower paintings to the Prince of the Asturias for his Casita at the Escorial; in 1802 he gave the same royal figure, by then Charles IV, a further six flower paintings; and in 1814 he gave King Ferdinand VII two flower pictures during his visit to the Valencian Academy.

The present still lifes are signed by the artist and dated 1812, three years before the end of Espinós' role as director of the academy and a turbulent year within mainland Europe. The paintings reveal unusually ambitious and impressive compositions by the artist and belong to a small group of works of horizontal format, in which a selection of flowers and classical friezes (a clear allusion to the artist's classical training) are arranged upon a stone table top - see, for example, a painting (oil on panel, 57.5 by 74 cm.) sold in these rooms, 5 April 1995, lot 148. The present works however are unusual in the breadth of objects displayed and in the inclusion of the distant landscape and open window, through which rays of natural light fall upon the objects. This device appears to be a direct attempt by the artist to connect the subject of his paintings with the real world of the viewer's existence, which along with the overt vanitas symbolism, represented through the perfect and broken vases in each of the scenes, is rarely to be found in the artist's oeuvre. The bright colour scheme is entirely characteristic of the artist's work and the 18th century tradition, with the strong and rich tones of the blooms animating the setting, which combined with the play of light and shade over the still life objects, creates a highly decorative and refined effect.

Although the precise details of the original commissioner or intended recipient of these impressive paintings is not known, the elaborate design of the compositions and the unusual richness of classical and academic symbolism within the works appears to suggest that the they were intended for an important and highly educated patron. That the pictures are believed to have been in the collection of Isabel II, invites the possibility that they may have been painted by the artist with a royal patron in mind, although without further evidence this must remain a matter of conjecture. The high value which the paintings were accorded during the late 19th century is attested to by old labels on the reverse of the frames, which record that they were valued in 1895 by Don Carlos Giner and Don Eduard Soler for the princely sum of 300 reales each (inv. nos. 15 & 16).