Probably José Elbo (ubeda, 1804 - Madrid, 1844)

Probably José Elbo (Ubeda, 1804 - Madrid, 1844) Family in a landscape, oil on canvas. Unsigned. A painter of Spanish Romanticism, he was influenced by the Sevillian and Madrid schools, by artists such as Leonardo Alenza, Manuel Barrón or Joaquín Domínguez Bécquer. He trained in the studio of the chamber painter José Aparicio and became an Academician of Merit of the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid and one of the founders of the Artistic and Literary High School of Madrid, which would be an important center for the dissemination of romanticism. . . His themes focus on costumbrista scenes, portraits and landscapes, in addition to those of bullfighting. He collaborates with the publications Semanario Pintoresco and El Panorama. His works were very popular with European travelers who bought them as a souvenir of this picturesque Spain that seduced them. His works are kept in the Museum of Romanticism in Madrid, the Museum of the Academy of San Fernando, the Prado Museum and the Museum of Jaén. This canvas is based on a composition by Manuel Barrón in which the romantic and idealized landscape shares the spotlight with a scene that can be interpreted as a translation of the Flight into Egypt in a contemporary key. The somewhat caricatural figures, with a grace or charm stemming from a certain ingenuity, are very characteristic of this author, as is the treatment of the landscape, with a preference for brown tones and slight contrasts.