Model Making Mischief

Raimundo de Madrazo

Madrazo y Garreta, Raimundo de

Roma, 1841 - Versalles, 1920

Model Making Mischief, c. 1885 (Travesuras de la modelo)

© Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza

Signed lower right: "R. Madrazo".
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan to the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga.

Oil on canvas

95,2 x 66 cm

CTB.1989.7

Artwork history

  • Mr. Lorenzo García Vela, Madrid, 1885.

  • Christie´s, London, Lot 70, February 17, 1989.

  • Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection.

1885

Exposición, Madrid, Sala Bosch.

1893

Exposición, Madrid, Círculo de Bellas Artes.

1995

Madrazo, Masriera y Miralles. Tres pintores del siglo XIX, Barcelona, Sala de Exposiciones del Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, p. 70.

1996

De Canaletto a Kandinsky. Obras maestras de la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, n. 24, p. 96.

1996 - 1997

From Zurbaran to Picasso. Masterpieces from the Collection of Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Shanghai, Shanghai Museum; Pekín, China National Art Gallery, p. 50.

1998

España fin de siglo. 1898, Madrid, Museo de Antropología; Barcelona, Centre Cultural de la Fundación ''la Caixa'' , n. 169, p. 211 (Madrid).

1998 - 1999

Fortuny e la pittura preziosista espagnola. Collezione Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Catania, Museo Civico Castello Ursino; Roma, Accademia di Spagna, n. 16, p. 52.

1999

La pintura preciosista española de la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Valencia, Sala de Exposiciones del Edificio del Reloj, Puerto de Valencia, n. 16, p. 66.

2017

Un món ideal: De Van Gogh a Gauguin i Vasarely. Col.lecció Carmen Thyssen. Espai Carmen Thyssen, Sant Feliu de Guíxols. p. 78, 79, 152, 179 y 180.

2019

Balenciaga and Spanish painting. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. p. 263.

2020 - 2021

Invitadas. Fragmentos sobre mujeres, ideología y artes plásticas en España (1833-1931). Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid. Cat. 59. p. 257-258.

  • -Martínez de Velasco, E.: “Nuestros grabados”, Ilustración Española y Americana, Madrid, n. 23, 1885, pp. 370-371 y lam.

  • -López-Mosteiro, C.: “Subasta Christie´s Londres”, Mercado del Arte, Feb-March 1989, pp. 11.

  • -Madrazo, Masriera y Miralles., tres pintores del siglo XIX. Barcelona, Sala Exp. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, 1995. (Exhib. Cat.), pp. 70. (Ilust.)

  • -Díez, J. L.: De Canaletto a Kandinsky. Obras Maestras de la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza.  Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza,1996. (Exhib. Cat.), pp. 96-97. Lam. 24.

  • –From Zurbarán to Picasso. Masterpieces from the Collection of CarmenThyssen-Bornemisza. Shanghai, Beijing, Skira Ed., 1996-1997. (Exhib. Cat.), pp. 50-51.

  • -El legado Ramón de Errazu. Fortuny, Madrazo y Rico. Barón, Javier (ed.). [Exhib. Cat.]. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2005, pp. 163-164, il. [Sheet byAna Gutiérrez Márquez – picture of Madrazo: “La modelo Aline Masson”, c. 1876].

  • -Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga. Colección. Catálogo razonado, Fundación Palacio de Villalón, Málaga, 2014. P. 168-169 [Sheet by José Luis Díez].

  • -Un món ideal: De Van Gogh a Gauguin i Vasarely. Col.lecció Carmen Thyssen. Espai Carmen Thyssen, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, 2017. p. 78, 79, 152, 179 y 180. [Sheet by José Luis Díez]. [Exhib. Cat.]

  • -Balenciaga and Spanish painting. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. [Exhib. Cat.  Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza], Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, Madrid. 2019. P. 263.

  • -Invitadas. Fragmentos sobre mujeres, ideología y artes plásticas en España (1833-1931). Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid.[Exhib. Cat.  Museo Nacional del Prado], Madrid, 2020.  Cat. 59. p. 257-258.

Expert report

In Raimundo de Madrazo’s prolific production, most of which was executed in Paris, where he settled when very young, his paintings featuring his favourite model, Aline Masson, are numerous. He depicted her in the most varied attitudes, poses and dress, whether in full-, bust- or half-length portraits or in genre paintings with other figures. When he painted her on her own it was almost always full-length, in costume or at the centre of a scene often with some degree of anecdotal content.

Here he depicted her in his studio during a rest from posing. She has approached the canvas to examine a sketch of herself and has audaciously painted a caricature of the artist, who is apparently looking on.

Despite the inconsequential theme and his insistence on including decorative elements in his pictures, here Raimundo de Madrazo demonstrated the extraordinary flair for painting female portraits that brought him such fame with contemporary Parisian high society. It is also evident in the soft, sensuous modelling of the flesh tones and his astounding ability to reproduce the qualities of the fabrics and the jewellery with which he adorned his model. From the compositional point of view, particularly striking is the ease with which he was able to construct a narrative theme, however slight, with a single figure and using resources typical of Baroque painting, in this case making a figure outside the field of vision an accessory to the scene.

Despite the apparent casualness of the image, a certain stiffness in the model’s posture and an inexpressiveness in her gesture conferring an almost mannequin-like coldness upon her actually underline both the model’s premeditation of her pose and her professionalism.

On the other hand, despite its purely incidental presence, the barely discernible figure in the painting on the easel still displays Madrazo’s amazing confidence and his ability to suggest, with a few rapid touches of the paintbrush, the basic female contours, the volume of the flesh tones and the light on the model’s dress.

The painting was sold at auction in 1989 with the title En el studio (“In the Studio”).

José Luis Díez