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ANTONIO MARIA ESQUIVEL Y SÚAREZ DE URBINA (Seville 1806 - Madrid 1857) “Portrait of Raimundo Roberto and Fernando José, the Sons of Her Royal Highness the Infanta Josefa Fernanda de Borbón” Oil on canvas 145 x 103 cm 1855 Inscribed with the title, signed and dated: D. RAIMUNDO ROBERTO Y D. FERNANDO JOSE, HIJOS DE S.A.R. LA INFANTA Dª. JOSEFA FERNANDA DE BORBON. Madrid de octubre 1855. A.M. Esquivel. ft. And inscribed on the dog’s collar: “LIBRE” Considered the greatest representative of Sevillian Romanticism, Antonio María Esquivel was not only a painter but also an art critic, journalist and historian. Made an academician of merit by the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1832, for which institution he published his Tratado de anatomía pictórica in 1848 (ESQUIVEL: 1848), he was a frequent contributor to publications including El Siglo XIX and El Panorama. By 1837 he was also a member of the Liceo Artístico y Literario in Madrid. Nonetheless, and despite personal and professional success in the capital, Esquivel soon returned to his native Seville (BANDA Y VARGAS: 2002; FERNÁNDEZ LÓPEZ: 1985; GALÁN: 1994; VALDIVIESO: 1981; GUERRERO LOVILL: 1949 and 1957; among others). At that period, in the late 1840s, Esquivel developed a problem with his eyes and was on the point of abandoning his career as an artist. Fortunately, however, the disease was not irreversible and he recovered (COTARELO: 1951, pp.33-58). Within the artist’s oeuvre, which encompasses history painting, religious scenes and portraits, there are two notably celebrated group portraits that depict many of the leading figures in the cultural circles of Madrid, namely The contemporary Poets. A Reading by Zorrilla in the Painter’s Studio (fig. 6, detail) and Ventura de la Vega

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reading a Work to the Actors in the Teatro Príncipe, both from 1846 and now in the Museo del Prado. The present Portrait of Raimundo Roberto and Fernando José, the Sons of Her Royal Highness the Infanta Josefa Fernanda de Borbón is published here after having disappeared from public view following its presentation by the artist at the National Fine Arts Exhibition in Madrid in 1856 (La Época: 19 May 1856; La Ilustración: 26 May 1856). It is one of Esquivel’s last works, together with his portrait of the Infanta herself (1856, 196 x 122 cm), which is in the collection of the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid (fig. 5) (PÉREZ SÁNCHEZ Y GONZÁLEZ ZYMLA: 2003, no. 27). María Josefa Fernanda de Borbón was the sister of the King Consort Francisco de Asís. She secretly married the writer, journalist and poet José Güell y Renté (fig. 7), who also appears behind the poet Zorrilla in The contemporary Poets... (fig. 6, detail). This was, then, an unequal marriage in terms of the Pragmática Sanción of 1776 and in Valladolid in June 1848 Queen Isabel II withdrew María Josefina Fernanda’s status as Infanta as well as all her honours, following an obscure procedure conducted by General Narváez, President of the Council of Ministers, and one motivated by the political aspirations of the couple, who conspired in favour of O’Donnell and Espartero. María Josefina Fernanda and her husband lived in exile in France for four years and had two children, Raimundo Roberto (fig. 3) and Fernando José (fig. 4). The first achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Cavalry and became the Marquis of Valcarlos and a Grandee of Spain in 1865. The second pursued a diplomatic career and became the Marquis of Güell in 1879. The portrait in the Academia de la Historia in Madrid depicts the Infanta full-length, wearing a pink dress and leaning on a balustrade (a device often used by Esquivel) in a shady garden. On the end of the balustrade a stone putto supports the coat-of-arms of Castile and León, which may refer to her privileges as Infanta, which she lost in 1848 then recovered in 1855, probably thanks to the political involvement of José Güell, who also published a Defensa legal de la serenísima señora infant doña Josefa de Borbón in 1853 (GÜELL: 1853), which provided the basis for the Infanta’s public defence. Both works were painted within a few months of each other, shortly before the artist’s death. The Infanta’s two sons are dressed as shepherds wearing lambskins. They are accompanied by a dog with the word “LIBRE” [Free] on its collar, which is very similar to the dog in Portrait of a Girl sold at Alcalá Subastas in Madrid in 2013 (fig. 1), and by a cage of goldfinches and a free-flying canary. Depicted in a semi-wild, woody setting, the way they are represented would seem to reflect their father’s ideals. Esquivel included animals and landscapes that could be described as “emblematic” or “emotional” in his portraits with the aim of completing the representation of his sitters from a symbolic and aesthetic viewpoint. This is particularly the case in his child portraits, for example, Portrait of Rafaela Flores Calderón (fig. 2: Museo del Prado). This text concludes with some verses from a poem by José Güell y Renté dedicated to his first-born son Raimundo, which perfectly illustrate the aesthetic and religious sentiment that this painting conveys, as well as the eventful nature of the family’s life during this period. Alejandro Martínez PhD, Department of History and Theory of Art at the UAM

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A mi hijo Raimundo (Ca. 1849-1850) Yo te bendigo en lágrimas bañado sobre tu pura frente, ángel hermoso, miro de Dios el dedo señalado que le marca a tu vida un fin dichoso […] Y en Dios fija tu alma, en Dios tus ojos; Él es el que dispone de la suerte […] Él tiene ya marcado tu destino como señala por el ancho cielo, a las sencillas aves del camino, que trazan en los aires con su vuelo […] Porque vienes de reyes, ¡pobre niño! Acuérdate que vale más que el oro, Más que la adulación, como el cariño de tu querida madre á quien adoro. El placer de hacer bien; y la terneza de un alma pura, humilde y generosa, es aún más que la pompa y la grandeza que se envuelve en la púrpura orgullosa. Ese tesoro santo y escogido no se lo quita el mundo al que lo tiene;

ni se compra con oro; ni vendido el malvado con crímenes lo obtiene. La riqueza, el poder; son dos placeres buenos para la sórdida codicia […] Consérvala purísima, hijo mío [el alma] llena de caridad y de ternura; y resguardada del veneno impío cuya copa fatal el malo apura. Y no adornes tu frente con laureles, la luz del almo sol nunca te vea, ridículo, vestido de oropeles ni del poder llevando la librea. Que al mérito es oprobio tanto dije: y el relumbrar del oro le amancilla… La virtud soberana siempre rige, y donde está con lucero brilla.

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RELATED LITERATURE: Alcalá Subastas. Sale catalogue, 10 May 2000, lot 116, pp. 71-72. Álvarez Lopera, José. “1842: Esquivel contra los Nazarenos. La polémica y su trasfondo”. Anales de Historia del Arte, 6, 1996, pp. 285-316. Banda y vargas, Antonio de la. Antonio María Esquivel. Seville: Diputación de Sevilla, 2002. Banda y vargas, Antonio de la. “Un posible Esquivel en la parroquia de la Concepción de La Laguna”. Archivo Hispalense, no. 186, 1978, pp. 183-185. Cotarelo, Armando. “La ceguera de Esquivel”. Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, vol. CXXVIII, 1951, pp. 33-58. La Época, 19 May 1856. Español Boluche, Luis. Nuevos y viejos problemas en la sucesión de la Corona española. Madrid: Instituto Salazar de Castro y Editorial Hidalguía, 1999, pp. 68-70. Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina, Antonio María. Tratado de anatomía pictórica. Madrid: Imprenta de Francisco Andrés y Compañía, 1848. Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina, Antonio María. Observaciones acerca del estado actual de la Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Madrid: Imprenta de la Compañía Tipográfica, 1838. Fernández López, José. “La pintura de historia en Sevilla en el siglo XIX”. In: Arte Hispalense, vol. 39. Seville: Diputación Provincial, 1985. Galán, Eva V. Pintores del romanticismo andaluz. Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1994. Gaya Nuño, Juan Antonio. “Arte del siglo XIX”. In: Ars Hispaniae, vol. XIX. Madrid: Plus Ultra, 1996, pp. 209-216. Grosso, Alfonso. “Un siglo después de la muerte de Antonio María Esquivel”. Archivo Hispalense, vol. XXVII, no. 86, 1957, pp. 147-157. Guerrero Lovillo, José. “Los pintores románticos sevillanos”. Archivo Hispalense, vol. XI, nos. 36-38, 1949, pp. 35-84 (pp. 40-47). _____. Antonio María Esquivel. Madrid: CSIC, 1957. Güell y Renté, José. Defensa legal de la serenísima señora infanta doña Josefa de Borbón. Madrid: Firmin-Didot hermanos, 1853. La Ilustración. Periódico Universal, 26 May 1856. Mattoni, Virgilio. Sevilla en sus pintores. Quién no vio Sevilla… Seville: Tipografía Girones, 1920. Pantorba, Bernardino. “Antonio María Esquivel”. Arte Español, 1959, second quarter. Pardo Canalís, Enrique. “Apuntes para el estudio de Esquivel”. Revista de Ideas Estéticas, no. 110, 1970, pp. 41-49. Pérez Calero, Gerardo “Consideraciones estéticas en torno a la obra del pintor Antonio M. Esquivel”. Laboratorio de Arte: Revista del Departamento de Historia del Arte, no. 24, 2012, pp. 527-536. Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E, y González Zymla, Herbert. Catálogo de pinturas de la Real Academia de la Historia. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2003 (no. 27, pp. 74-75). Valdivieso González, Enrique. Pintura sevillana del siglo XIX. Seville: Server-Cuesta, 1981. Valverde Madrid, José. “Tres documentos sobre el pintor Antonio María Esquivel”. Boletín de Bellas Artes de la Academia de Santa Isabel de Hungría, VII, 2ª época, 1979, pp. 235-240.