Lot 178: Rafael Romero y Barros Moguer 1832-Córdoba 1895 , Feria de Sevilla (The Fair at Seville) oil on canvas

signed, inscribed and dated Rafael Romero Sevilla / 1862 l.l. oil on canvas

77.5 by 112.5cm., 30½ by 44¼in.

Acquired by the family of the present owners in the 1940s

We are grateful to Mercedes Valverde for her assistance in the cataloguing of this work.
PROPERTY FROM A SPANISH PRIVATE COLLECTION
Painted in Seville, the present work depicts the teeming activity of a fair on the Prado de San Sebastián, a prairie outside Seville where the cattle market was held. Filled with people in all types of colourful dress busy carrying out all manner of activities, Romero Barros' painting is astonishing in its detail. Soldiers on horseback flank the right hand edge; elegant ladies in flowing shawls and silk dresses pass by horse traders with donkeys; shepherds rest their flock; a lady dances the flamenco on a stage beneath an elaborate tented awning, next to her another woman fries choux. The crowded landscape punctuated by elegant white tents stretches far into the distance. In the background are the spires of Seville. The Palace of San Telmo owned by the Duke of Montpensier is to the left of the composition; beside it the main city gate is bedecked with flags. To the right is the cathedral, the Giralda tower and the church of San Salvador. Romero Barros' depiction of the scene was greatly influenced by earlier painters of Seville, amongst them Manuel Barros (1814-1884), Antonio Cabral Bejarano, Joaquín Domínguez Becquer and Manuel Rodriguez de Guzmán. His immediate source of inspiration, however, was Andrés Cortés y Aguilara who painted two versions of this view. The first, dated 1846, was donated by Count Ybarra to Seville Town Hall, the second, dated 1852, is in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao. Like the paintings by Cortés, Romero Barros gives a lot of attention to Count Ybarra and his wife María Dolores González, who are depicted together in an open topped carriage to the left of centre. The artist also included himself in the foreground, seated next to a little girl with a hoop with his back to the viewer sketching the scene and watched intently by a dog. Raised in Córdoba, Romero y Barros trained in Seville under the landscape painter Manuel Barrón. Married in 1859 to Maria Rosa Torres, the couple returned to Córdoba in 1862. There Romero y Barros was appointed conservator of the Museum of Fine Arts, becoming director of the museum in 1877. A teacher at the Córdoba Academy of Fine Arts, he also founded the Museum of Archaeology and was a member of the Monument Commission. With Maria Rosa he had eight children; three of his sons, Julio, Enrique and Rafael went on to become established artists, the best known of whom is Julio Romero de Torres (see lots 181 & 197).