Vicente Lopez y Portaña Valencia 1772 - 1850 Madrid

Born in Valencia in 1772, Vicente López y Portaña rose quickly to become one of the most highly regarded Spanish painters of the 19th century.  In 1814 the artist was appointed with Francesco de Goya first court painter to Ferdinand VII in Madrid.  In that capacity, he executed the works for which he is most well-known: the portraits of most of the leading political and cultural figures of 19th century Spain.  In addition to these portraits, Portaña was appreciated then, as he is now, as one of the few artists of the period to dedicate himself with great passion to his religious subjects. 

In The Apparition of the Eucharist to San Pascual Bailon Portaña demonstrated his ability both to render human likenesses and to instill a sense of religious spirit in his painting.  The face of the kneeling San Pascual of Baillon, the 16th century Spanish shepherd turned Franciscan lay brother, who from a young age was devoted to the Eucharist, and the faces of the hovering putti and angels, are here painted with beautiful detail and tenderness, while the overall composition is suffused with the softness and quiet achieved through religious contemplation.

The present painting is an autograph replica of The Apparition of the Eucharist to San Pascual Bailon, which Lopez exhibited at the Accademia San Fernando, Madrid, 1837, and which is now in a private collection, Valencia. ¹ 

1 See, J.L. Diez, op. cit. p. 61 - 62, cat. no. P-265, p. 748, reproduced plate 236.