Poppy Harvey-Jones
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Lot 75
Francisco de Zurbarán(Fuente de Cantos, Badajoz 1598-1664 Madrid)San Carlo Borromeo praying before the Santo Clavo
6 December 2017, 15:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street£100,000 - £150,000
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Francisco de Zurbarán (Fuente de Cantos, Badajoz 1598-1664 Madrid)
San Carlo Borromeo praying before the Santo Clavo
signed 'frcorbaran / f ***' (lower left)
oil on canvas
79.7 x 62.2cm (31 3/8 x 24 1/2in).
signed 'frcorbaran / f ***' (lower left)
oil on canvas
79.7 x 62.2cm (31 3/8 x 24 1/2in).
Footnotes
The present previously unrecorded work is accompanied by a certificate from Odile Delenda, dated 17 January 2017, in which she suggests, upon inspection of photographs, a date of circa 1650. She will include it in her forthcoming supplement to her 2010 publication Zurbaran: Catalogo razonado y critico.
Zurbarán's most successful period financially was during the 1730s when he mostly worked for monastic orders in Seville, the majority of his commissions being of religious imagery. Many of these theologically inspired paintings are simple, yet emotionally compelling, works that exhibit his naturalistic style, together with his skilled use of light and shadow. After Bartolomé Esteban Murillo's work became popular in Seville by the 1640s, Zurbarán found himself displaced as the city's foremost painter so that monasteries were offering fewer commissions, reducing his opportunities. With his domestic market in decline, Zurbarán for a period in the 1640s turned to the New World, exporting a number of his canvases. However, fleet seizures kept him from receiving some payments, which exacerbated his financial difficulties. In the 1650s, he once again focused on domestic commissions, though he no longer commanded the high fees he once had. Yet while Zurbarán's artistic reputation may have fluctuated during his lifetime, today he is regarded as one of the very greatest artists from the Spanish Golden Age of painting.