Ignacio Zuloaga

Don José Santamarina, Paris
Artur Ramón Antiquari, Barcelona
Purchased by the father of the present owner from the above; thence by descent

Copley Society of Boston; Brooklyn Musem; New York, Duveen Galleries; Buffalo, Albright Gallery; Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute; Cleveland Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago; City Art Museum of Saint Louis; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Detroit Museum of Art; Toledo Museum of Art; Cincinatti Museum Association; Indianapolis, John Herron Art Institute; Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art; San Francisco Art Association; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Exhibition of Paintings by Ignacio Zuloaga Under the Auspices of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, 1916-1918, no. 25, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Reinhardt Galleries, Ignacio Zuloaga Exhibition, 1925, no. 20 / no. 25, illustrated in the catalogue

Silvio Lago, 'El arte de Zuloaga', La Esfera, 2 September 1916
'Artísticas: Ignacio Zuloaga. Una exposición de sus obras en Nueva York', La Prensa, 10 January 1917
'The Deferred Triumph of Zuloaga's Art', The World Magazine, 14 January 1917, illustrated in colour
Ramón Pérez de Ayala, 'Ignacio Zuloaga', La Prensa, October 1921
El Liberal, December 1921
Camille Mauclair, 'Zuloaga', Revue d'Art de France et de l'Etranger, or 'Ignacio Zuloaga', L'Art et les Artistes, 1925, p. 192 (as La Femme à l'éventail)
Ignacio Zuloaga 1870-1945, Bilbao, 1990 (exh. cat.), p. 82, illustrated
Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, The Life and Work of Ignacio Zuloaga, Barcelona, 1991, p. 510, no. 366, catalogued

Original canvas. There are scattered spots of retouching visible under ultraviolet light, notably some infilling to the upper, right and left edges, spots to the shawl, the edge of the red dress and to the lower right, and old restoration corresponding to a patch on the reverse to the lower left quadrant. This work is in overall good condition, stable and with rich colours and ready to hang.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted in Paris in 1912, Zuloaga's sumptuous portrait of one of his favourite sitters, Lolita Lacour, is a studied essay in cultural sophistication and material wealth that reflects his strong Spanish roots and cosmopolitan up-bringing.

Reclining on a sofa covered in a richly ornamented mantón de Manila, Lolita coyly holds a painted fan in her right hand while her left arm langurously traces the sofa back as she fixes her gaze on the viewer. The mantón, the silk for which was originally imported from the Philippines, is a traditional Spanish shawl that that was worn for celebrations, bullfights and feast days. The finely observed floral patterns of the blue and white mantón and her rich red and silver tiered flamenco skirt recalls the sumptuous fabrics to be found in the portraits of the French nineteenth-century master Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. The coquettish pose is clearly a reprise of Goya's Maja vestida. 

Lolita is one of a small group of especially resplendent reclining ladies that Zuloaga painted immediately before World War I on a grand scale. Others included portraits of the Countess of Noailles, the Duchess of Alba and another of his favourite models Marcelle Souty. In his depictions of Mme Lacour and Mme Souty, like Goya before him, Zuloaga did not just paint these sitters vestida but also desnudo, exactly as Goya had a century earlier.

Paris had long been Zuloaga's second home. He had been sent there to boarding school when growing up, and had arrived there as an art student in 1889 to study in the atelier of Eugène Carrière. In the succeeding years Zuloaga developed a wide and influential group of Parisian friends and acquaintances, including Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin; the latter he took on a tour of Madrid, Toledo and Andalusia in 1905. 

Dividing his time between Spain and France a pattern developed for where he would work and when: Paris during the winter and part of the summer, Segovia or Madrid, and Eibar in the north of Spain at different times during the rest of the year. As the years passed he sent his pictures to an increasing number of international exhibitions from Rome to Santiago in Chile. The present work was included in Zuloaga's 43-piece exhibition in the United States, touring to museums and galleries in New York, Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis and Minneapolis between 1916-18. This seminal show in the career of the artist was accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an enthusiastic foreword by John Singer Sargent.