José Gutiérrez de la Vega (1791-1865) - Nazareno

JOSÉ GUTIÉRREZ DE LA VEGA (Seville, 1791 – Madrid, 1865).
«Penitent», c. 1840.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Shows signs of damage.
Dimensions: 54 x 36 cm; 72 x 53 cm (frame).
This work reflects Gutiérrez de la Vega’s interest in popular religious devotion and processional iconography, combining Baroque tradition with Romantic sensibility in an image intended to evoke emotion and spiritual contemplation.
José Gutiérrez de la Vega trained at the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary in Seville from 1802 to 1807. He began painting portraits in 1816; even in his earliest works, one can see the vaporous quality of the tones and flesh, characteristically Murillesque, which—as some commentators have noted—began to earn him a reputation. Between 1818 and 1820, he stopped attending the Academy and devoted himself to making copies of Murillo—even attempting the master’s most complex canvases—an activity whose sales provided his livelihood. In 1821, however, he enrolled again, perhaps intending to teach; indeed, in 1825 he was appointed assistant professor. Years later, in 1831, he decided to move to Madrid to seek his fortune at court. He was an Academician of Merit of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, although he never attained the position of court painter, which could only be filled when a vacancy arose. Following the creation of the Artistic and Literary Lyceum of Madrid, Gutiérrez de la Vega became one of its most active members. He was also appointed director of the School of Fine Arts in Seville, a position he held from 1839 to 1847, when he had to leave it because of his lengthy stays in Madrid. Later, he was appointed professor in the elementary studies department attached to the Royal Academy of San Fernando. Gutiérrez de la Vega made his living mainly from portraiture, depicting prominent figures such as Isabella II (both as a child and as an adult), the Marquis of Almonacid, the English traveler Richard Ford, and María Cristina, widow of Ferdinand VII. His passion for Murillo’s work also led him to paint religious subjects, a facet of his work in which his «Immaculate Conceptions» stand out. In addition to portraits and religious subjects, this artist occasionally painted genre scenes. Today, Gutiérrez de la Vega’s work can be found, among other places, at the Prado Museum, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, the Ministries of Public Works and Industry in Madrid, the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts in Málaga, and the Museum of Romanticism in Madrid.