Francisco Domingo Marques Zapatero de viejo

Caption from the museum's website



Considered one of the finest examples of Francisco Domingo´s portraiture, this work shows an old shoemaker -an extraordinarily popular figure in the old neighborhoods of the major cities- over a neutral background. The loose brushstrokes, applied in short, juxtaposed fashion, bring out the sitter´s intense expression, managing to emphasize his face and neck despite the reduced palette. Domingo consciously copied this technique from Francisco de Goya and Mariano Fortuny, his two most important points of reference. The influence of earlier Spanish painting is evident in the depictions of ordinary people by Domingo Marqués and other artists of his generation. In particular the limited palette of ochre tones, heavily charged brushstrokes, intense characterisation and humble social status of this cobbler refer to the tradition of José de Ribera, which was notably important for nineteenth-century painting and Valencian realism. The work was part of the legacy of Isidoro Fernández Flórez, and was intended for the now-defunct Museum of Modern Art in 1902.