Madrid,
The Prado Museum has recently acquired, and is now exhibiting in its room 62A, a self-portrait of the romantic painter Rosario Weiss, dated 1841 and titled The attention. It was considered lost, but it has been identified thanks to a drawing that is kept in the Museum of Romanticism, also in Madrid.
This work, in which Weiss represented herself as an allegory of the virtue of attention, was paired with another, also a self-portrait: an allegory of silence that belongs to the collection of the Bordeaux City Council.
As is known, this painter was a disciple of Goya and lived with the master during her childhood, while he was exiled in Bordeaux, a city where we know that she coincided with a then very young Rosa Bonheur. Although he died as soon as he was 29, he had time to carry out a set of works in which he tested his sensitivity for portraiture and his originality when composing scenes, sometimes with a marked political meaning.
This self-portrait was made by Weiss when she was at the height of her talent, and what is striking is the author’s penetrating gaze and an expression that reflects her introspective attitude: she was especially dedicated to this genre of portraiture and knew how to delve deeper in the psychology of his models, in this case his own. Along with the aforementioned allegory of silence, the piece was presented in an exhibition of the Société Philomatique of Bordeaux in 1841, after which the second work went to the funds of the City Council of that French city, but The attention had disappeared until now.
The Prado had long sought to acquire relevant works by Weiss, after purchasing the drawing in 2013. Portrait of a Bordeaux Lady and to attribute to him, in 2008, a portrait that was already in his collection, The dukes of San Fernando de Quiroga, copy from an original by another artist. With the incorporation of this work to its rooms dedicated to 19th century art, the gallery perfects the image it offers us of painting in the Elizabethan era and also adds to our tour the representation of what could have been the best romantic artist of her time. .
This purchase is part of the policy of this institution focused on recovering the legacy of Spanish women painters from before the 20th century, which began four years ago and which, until now, has allowed the incorporation and exhibition of creations by authors such as Antonia Bañuelos (1856-1926). ), Carlota Rosales (1872-1958), María Blanchard (1881-1932) or Aurelia Navarro (1882-1968), among others.
WEISS, MERIT ACADEMIC
Born in Madrid in 1814, Rosario Weiss was the daughter of Leocadia Zorilla, Goya’s housekeeper since at least 1815. We know that it was he who instructed her in drawing since she was a child and that she also received training from the architect Tiburcio Pérez Raven in 1824; With him I would begin to use blurring and Indian ink. Before September 20 of that year, 1824, Leocadia and her children Guillermo and Rosario were already installed in Goya’s home in Bordeaux and would live with him until his death in 1828.
In France, Rosario continued to receive the teachings of the genius until in 1825 he went to the free public school directed by Pierre Lacour, where more academic education was provided. In July 1833 the family returned to Madrid after a political amnesty and she worked for a time as a copyist at the Prado Museum, at the San Fernando Academy and in private collections such as that of the Duchess of San Fernando. He also made miniatures – although these are not identified -, pencil portraits – the bulk of his production – and lithographs; With this last technique, which he had learned in Bordeaux, his portraits of Mesonero Romanos, Zorrilla, Espronceda and Larra were recorded.
Between 1834 and 1842 she would participate in the annual exhibitions of the Academy, where in 1840 she received the title of Academician of merit for painting, and it would be a year later when her aforementioned work The Silence He won a silver medal at the exhibition organized by the Société Philomatique of Bordeaux. She was also a member, since 1837, of the Liceo Artístico y Literario de Madrid, where she made numerous portraits.
Supported by the liberal circle, in 1842 she was appointed drawing teacher to Isabel II and her sister, Infanta Luisa Fernanda, receiving a salary of 8,000 reales a year, but she was able to work in that role for a short time, when she died due to cholera. morbidity in 1843.
