Lot 126: José Gallegos y Arnosa (Spanish, 1859-1917)

José Gallegos y Arnosa (Spanish, 1859-1917)
The Wedding Day
signed, inscribed and dated 'JGallegos ROMA 1889' (lower right)
oil on panel
23½ x 36 in. (59.7 x 91.4 cm.)
Painted in 1889.

THE PROPERTY OF A CALIFORNIA COLLECTOR

Born in Jerez in Andalusia in 1857, José Gallegos was the youngest of five sons. His father, Don Jose, worked in a sherry bodega and it was the owner who assisted the young artist in his application for enrollment in the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. His father wanted the young man to pursue a career in architecture.

While at the Academy, Gallegos' innate talent soon became apparent and he became a student of Madrazo. After his graduation from the Academy, Gallegos moved to Tangier in Morocco and returned to Madrid with enough paintings to stage a one-man exhibition in his native Spain. The critics were unanimous in their praise and he was particularly acclaimed for his ability to handle complex compositions and for his sense of color. The artist moved to Venice, following the footsteps of his teacher, Madrazo.

In 1894, Gallegos finally settled in Rome where he had exhibited between 1881 and 1883 and he would sometimes spend weeks in Assisi with his friend the sculptor Mariano Beniliure and together with Beniliure, Salinas, Villegas, Poveda, and Salvador Sanchez Barbudo, he represented the elite of Spanish artists at the end of the 19th Century.

José Gallegos was one of the most commercially successful of the Spanish artists living in Rome. He sold his paintings easily and for high prices. He had regular contact with the art dealer Van Baerle, a Dutchman who was living in Berlin, and had a contract to deliver one painting per month. He had dealers in other countries, and sold through Arthur Tooth in London. He also was in great demand in the United States, and William Randolph Hearst also purchased works from the artist. He was awarded gold medals at a number of exhibitions, most notably in Venice and at the International Art exhibition in Berlin in 1891, where he was given his medal by Kaiser Wilhelm II himself.

The Wedding Day clearly demonstrates why Gallegos was so popular and commercially successful during his lifetime. Few artists are able to capture all the details of such a complex composition with the aplomb of this Spanish artist. Executed on a large panel, the scene depicted is that of the signing of the marriage documents after the actual ceremony. The bride is clearly the center of the composition, set off in her brilliant white dress and vibrant pink underskirt. The details of the lace veil and the tiny embroidered flowers are a tour-de-force of technique. Her family crowds around her and her mother's intricate costume is depicted with the same attention to detail as the bride's. The central figural group is placed in an almost theatrical manner within a lavishly decorated hall with pink and grey marble floors, deep wood paneling, and a wrought-iron grille defines the background. Groups of on-lookers punctuate the composition and serve to define the space. The scene is lit through a high window, bathing the scene in a soft diffuse light.