MADRID.- Acknowledged as a leading genre painter and society portraitist of his day, throughout his career Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (Rome, 1841-Versailles, 1920) both witnessed and reflected the tensions and paradoxes of modernity. Madrazo, who settled permanently in Paris at the age of just twenty-one, belonged to the third generation of one of the most renowned families of 19th-century Spanish painters. He soon, however, moved away from the quintessential 19th-century genres, such as mythology and history painting, and also broke with the tradition that obliged artists to follow the official artistic career path in order to participate in the established art circuit. Madrazo thus responded to the preferences of an upper-middle-class clientele that demanded portraits and genre scenes. The former offered the bourgeoisie a way to perpetuate their image, while the latter reflected many aspects of the idealised world they aspired to inhabit.

Paris in the last third of the 19th century provided the setting for a vibrant art world in which the academic currents that underpinned the official competitions coexisted with new creative tendencies such as Impressionism, which opened up alternative routes that would lead on to the early 20th century avant-garde movements. Largely unaligned with both orientations, Raimundo de Madrazo represented the so-called juste milieu, a type of painting located in an intermediary position that was widely ac- cepted by the public and collectors. Madrazo’s approach to his work, in its time a symbol of elegance, emulation of the past and respect for tradition, made him a key figure in both the art world and the most distinguished and international social circles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, with the passing of time and the advent of new artistic movements it was precisely that refined taste, meticulous representation of interiors and technical skill in reproducing textures and materials that led his oeuvre to be relegated in later art-historical accounts.

The exhibition Raimundo de Madrazo now presented by Fundación MAPFRE aims to remedy not only the present-day lack of awareness of this exceptional artist but also to restore his legacy to its rightful place in the history of art.

Structured into eight sections, it offers a survey of the painter’s output from both a chronological and thematic perspective. The more than 100 works on display include several previously unexhibited paintings that were rediscovered during the research undertaken for the exhibition. Raimundo de Madrazo has benefited from the support of nearly sixty important national and international institutions and private collections, including the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, The Hispanic Society of America, New York, and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

After being seen in Madrid, the exhibition will travel to the Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas, Texas, where it will be on view from 22 February to 21 June 2026.

Key Themes

THE MADRAZO FAMILY

The Madrazos were one of the most influential and renowned families within the context of 19th-century Spanish art. Grandson of the Neo-classical painter José de Madrazo and son of Federico de Madrazo, the most prominent portraitist of Spanish Romanticism, Raimundo was also the brother-in-law and close friend of Mariano Fortuny. In addition to being a direct descendant of two court painters and directors of the Real Museo de Pinturas y Esculturas (now the Museo del Prado), his uncles included Pedro de Madrazo, who distinguished himself as a painter, writer and art critic; Luis de Madrazo, also a painter; and Juan de Madrazo, a renowned architect and follower of Viollet-le-Duc. His nephew, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, also distinguished himself as a designer and set designer. On his maternal side the Kuntzs also enjoyed prestige as painters and portraitists. Heir to this artistic tradition, Raimundo de Madrazo had a brilliant career in the field of genre painting and portraiture while his son, known as Cocó, also became a well-known painter of Parisian society in the early years of the 20th century.

GENRE SCENES

Charles Baudelaire devoted his essay on the Salon of 1846 to the bourgeoisie, the new rising class in 19th-century France. Art evolved from being a private concern of the monarchy and the aristocracy to being a matter for “everyone.” With this democratisation of art came the democratisation of taste, a phenomenon notably linked to the growth of the art market. The middle-class desire to own works that testified to the social prestige of their owners resulted in the proliferation of genre scenes and picturesque episodes from daily life. Usually executed on small panels and hence known as tableautins, scenes of toilettes, depictions of women reading and writing, masked balls and characters such as Pierrot became favoured subjects for these highly-prized creations. Along with Mariano Fortuny and Eduardo Zamacois, Raimundo de Madrazo was one of the painters who specialised in small works of this type, which enjoyed enormous popularity with the wider public in the fin-de-siècle period.

PAINTING THE JUSTE MILIEU

In his 1914 book From Romanticism to Realism Léon Rosenthal entitled the fifth chapter the “Juste milieu”. In it he addressed a type of painting which, as the phrase implies, could be seen as a happy medium; neither academic nor avant-garde. Although Rosenthal was referring to French painting produced between 1830 and 1848, the term became popular over the years and, together with Horace Vernet, Paul Delaroche and Léon Cogniet, who were considered the best representatives of this trend, other paint- ers such as Raimundo de Madrazo were included. Painting of this type, executed with great skill and technical perfection and notable for its ingenuity but not excess (and hence unaffiliated with extremes), represented the majority taste, explaining why it enjoyed great commercial and critical success during the second half of the 19th century. Its decline, however, was as rapid as its rise and almost all the painters belonging to this movement were forgotten in art-historical studies and have only recently begun to enjoy the recognition they deserve.