Joaquín Cuadras (1843-1877)

Lieutenant General Sir Edric Montague Bastyan, Governor of South Australia (1961-1968) and Governor of Tasmania (1968-1973)
The Estate of David Ion Gordon Bastyan, Hobart, Tasmania (by descent from the previous owner)

London, The Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, 1872, no. 1106

The painting has been varnished evenly and the canvas is unlined. There is some scattered craquelure in the sky and in the central section by the figures as well as in the central section of the right side. There are very faint signs of retouching under UV light inspection. Overall, this work is in very good condition.
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Joaquín Cuadras was represented at the Royal Academy in 1872 by this charming painting Mulatto Girl's Toilette, a Scene in Cuba, in the manner of accomplished Spanish painted Mariano Fortuny Marsal (1838-1874) as far as high finish and brilliancy of colouring are concerned. In 1973 Cuadras contributed two engravings The Cuban Lovers and the Mulatto Girl to The Graphic magazine, and in 1874 he exhibited Return the Christening a painting of a scene in Venice with a christening party landing from a gondola, at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in London. Meanwhile, in 1873, Goodman had published an account of his years in Cuba entitled 'The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba', dedicated to "My travelling-companion and brother-artist Señor Don Joaquín Cuadras of Cuba, in remembrance of our long and uninterrupted friendship at home and abroad."

 

In 1876 Cuadras visited Nice, Bordinghera and Venice, and the same year he won a silver medal in an exhibition at the Liceo Artís tico y Literario de la Habana. In 1877 he won a bronze medal in the Los juegos florales of the Liceo de Matanzas. Four of his notable Cuban works were Como de Medicis, Rio Baconao, Orfila Coronado por una diosa (1874), and Lección de Anatomía—The whereabouts of which are unknown today. There are examples of Cuadras' work in the Museo Bacardi in Santiago de Cuba.