Basilio de Chávarri

This portrait belongs to the period that Ángel María Cortellini spent in Madrid, where he travelled in 1848 and when he was most devoted to the portraiture genre. Two years later the King Consort, Francisco de Asís, appointed him Honorary Painter to the Queen’s Chamber. At the Court, he had to do copies of the official portraits of the King and Queen, and this probably conditioned his way of conceiving the portrait always in the spirit of Romantic painting. He also managed to attract a select clientele mainly belonging to the wealthy bourgeoisie. In this case, Basilio de Chávarri is portrayed full length in a luxurious domestic interior, dressed in a black tail coat, wearing the sash and the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel the Catholic and the Cross of the Order of Santiago, confirming the social standing he enjoyed. He has his overcoat folded over his arm and his top hat and gloves in the other hand. / This portrait goes into pair with that of the wife of Mr. Chávarri, Mrs. Rita Romero (Museo del Romanticismo, inv. 559).