The present work is among the most impressive portraits by the famed Spanish portrait painter Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta. Depicting Clotilde de Cándamo (née Rivero or Ascencio de Rivero) and her son Carlos, this stunning portrait reflects the continued influence of Ingres on 19th century portraiture but also presages the following generation of society portraitists, including Sorolla, Boldini and Sargent. Señora de Cándamo was the wife of Carlos González de Cándamo y Iriarte, the Peruvian Ambassador to Paris and brother to Manuel de Cándamo y Iriarte, the President of Peru in 1895 and again in 1903-1904. Clotilde and her husband were both friends and supporters of Madrazo. The young Carlos, depicted staring adoringly at his elegant mother, was three years old at the time this portrait was painted. He was later a noted sportsman and diplomat, becoming the first Peruvian to take part in the Olympic Games (in the Paris 1900 Games) and to join the International Olympic Committee. In 1901, following in his father’s footsteps, Carlos was appointed Envoy Extraordinary from Peru to the United Kingdom and later France. In that capacity, he was one of the signers of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
Madrazo sets his figures before a warm, orange painterly background, a tone which compliments the hair colors of his sitters and brilliantly emphasizes the symphony of cool blue tones in the foreground. The bravura quality of Madrazo’s skill is evident in the manner in which he captures the composition’s differing textures, including the flowing silk of Clotilde’s dress, the taut brocade of the upholstery, the fur draped over the settee behind her, and the multi-colored bow on Carlos’s shoulder. Madrazo’s father Federico Madrazo had been both a student and family friend of Ingres, and it was undoubtedly to these two examples that the younger artist turned in undertaking this composition. The elder Madrazo painted his Portrait of Amalia de Llano y Dottres, Countess of Vilches (now in the Prado) very much in the style of Ingres in 1853, and she too wears a ravishing blue gown. Ingres himself of course offered two particularly celebrated examples of sitters in blue gowns as well – the Portrait of the Comtesse d'Haussonville (1845, Frick Collection) as well as her sister-in-law the Portrait of the Princesse de Broglie (1851-1853, Metropolitan Museum), the latter of which has long been celebrated for its exquisite rendering of her silk dress.
Madrazo’s depiction of Clotilde reveals both his exceptional gift for portraiture and for reflecting the tastes and aesthetics of his refined Second Empire clientèle. Though its large-scale and the sumptuousness of the fabrics give the portrait an undeniably opulent quality, Madrazo has restrained his depiction of any extraneous details in order to draw the viewer’s eye directly to his models themselves. As a result, the sitters’ personalities are not overwhelmed by the decorative elements of the portrait but instead allowed the room to match them. Madrazo has managed to evoke both Clotilde’s elegance and motherly warmth, and her son’s love for her in this wonderful portrait.