Isabel Baquero Y Rosado (c.1860-1926) - Madeleine

- Oil on canvas. - An unusual testimony to female painting in Spain before 1900, this Penitent Magdalene signed by Isabel Baquero constitutes an exceptional event in the history of national art because it completely departs from the traditional postulates of painting practiced by women of the time. Schools of female artists, with names like Fernanda Francés, Emilia Coranty or Julia Alcayde, specialized in genres that were not very committed and considered "minor" and "decorative" by their contemporaries, and their artistic demonstrations were understood with a mixture of compassion and condescension by critics and the public. This Magdalene, which avoids idealized models to create a pure portrait of the model, and even dares to enter the sensual realm of nudity by leaving a large part of the body undressed, constitutes one of those rare examples of courage and rebellion against what is established in the rigid Spanish academic environment. - Isabel Baquero y Rosado. Painter. Full member of the AEPE. Born in Madrid around 1860 and still active in 1926. Painter active in Madrid in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the daughter of Dr. Cayetano Baquero y Díaz Palacios and Doña Isabel Rosado, who died in Madrid in 1908 and 1898, respectively. She began her artistic studies in 1881 at the School of Arts and Crafts in Madrid, where she obtained a second prize, and then at the Special School of Painting, where she obtained a second prize in the discipline of old drawing and clothing in 1890. It was there that she was taken as a disciple by the painter Eugenio Oliva, one of those who distinguished himself at the time for having carried out the decoration of the chapel of Charles III of the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid, a work that earned him the decoration of Commander of the Order of Isabel the Catholic awarded to him by the government in 1889. In 1891, she obtained a scholarship by competition from the Provincial Council of Madrid to continue her studies in Spain. Also passionate about music, in 1884 she studied singing at the Academy of Artistic Music in Madrid, continuing her studies at the conservatory the following year, where she received an award. In 1884, he presented two still lifes at the Literary and Artistic Exhibition of Madrid. He participated in various National Exhibitions of Fine Arts. In 1887 with the work entitled "A Vestal"; in 1890, with the work "Portrait of his father" and a painting entitled "Miserere", inspired by a poem by Bécquer; In 1892, with "A Study Head", for which he received an honorable mention, the same award he received in the 1895 edition. In 1889, he participated in the Exhibition of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid with the painting entitled "In the Harem"; In 1893, at the Círculo Biennial with "Portrait of a Lady" and in 1896, with two portraits, "Meditation" and "At the Ball". At the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1899, he presented the works entitled "Lecture" and "Portrait of Miss JBR". In 1908, he stood out with two small tablets entitled "Memories of the Casón". At the art exhibition for the benefit of wounded soldiers in Cuba and the Philippines in 1897, he presented three oil paintings entitled "A Landscape", "In a Courtyard" and "Petition". In 1898, she received an honorable mention in the International Drawing Competition of La Revista Moderna with the work entitled "Also the People of the City". Her career turned towards teaching. In 1911 she was a drawing teacher at the Ibero-American Center for Popular Feminine Culture in Madrid and in 1915 she was appointed drawing teacher at the Adult School in Granada, where she received an annual salary of 2,500 pesetas, and remained active even in 1926, at the age of 66. - Dimensions of the unframed image: 82 x 57 cm / 101 x 78 cm with magnificent frame. - The Montbaron Gallery includes a technical sheet prepared by a qualified art historian with all its lots. This form is sent in digital format and on request.