Highly appreciated by the high society of his time, Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (Rome, 24 July 1841 - Versailles, 15 September 1920), was a Spanish painter of the 19th century. He worked mostly in the realistic style, although his later works show signs of Rococo and Japanese influence. He was best known for his genre paintings and portraits. Born into a family of artists, he was the son and pupil of the well-known portraitist Federico de Madrazo, brother of Ricardo de Madrazo and nephew of the painter José de Madrazo.
He studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando under the guidance of Carlos Luis de Ribera and Carlos de Haes. After settling in Madrid, he completed his education with trips to Paris, where he moved in 1860. There he became a pupil of the painter Léon Cogniet. He was an important representative of the school of Spanish painters in the French capital and even obtained the first medal and the title of Knight of the Legion of Honour.
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In Paris, where he spent most of his life, he married his cousin Eugenia de Ochoa. She passed away after the birth of their only son Federico, known as Cocó, who continued the family tradition by distinguishing himself as a painter.
Raimundo Madrazo's remarkable technical skills made him a successful portraitist who immortalised wealthy French, Americans, English and Argentinians. The painter also stood out for his skilful and sometimes flirtatious genre scenes and often portrayed richly dressed upper-class women. His blurred brushstrokes in the background added a dreamlike and poetic atmosphere to his works.
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Aline Masson, the daughter of the doorman of the Parisian residence of the Marqués de Casa Riera, was the model for almost all the female figures in his genre paintings. She represented the feminine aesthetic ideal of bourgeois Paris at the end of the 19th century. The white mantilla over a red shawl and flowers on her head with which she is portrayed in one of his works refer to the 19th-century French interest in Spanish fashion, a detail that Madrazo emphasised in many of his works.
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In 1869 Raimundo de Madrazo obtained a collection of important works by Francisco de Goya, which he donated in 1894 to the Prado. In 1914 he moved to Versailles, where he died six years later, on September 15, 1920, at the age of 79.
Today, his works are exhibited in the top museums in Europe, such as the Prado Museum, and testify to his meticulous and elegant realism. They often fetch high prices on the auction market, with many of his works selling in the six-figure range. His record was set in 2000 when Pierrette sold for $281,000 (about £222,000) at Christie's.
