FROM THE ESTATE OF KENNETH KENDALL, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. SPANISH/CUBAN SCHOOL (18th Century), CIRCLE OF VICENTE ESCOBAR ...

Description

FROM THE ESTATE OF KENNETH KENDALL, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

SPANISH/CUBAN SCHOOL (18th Century), CIRCLE OF VICENTE ESCOBAR (1757-1834)
Portrait of Francisco de Paula Navia y Velasquez as a Child Holding a Pet Bird, 1789
Oil on canvas
39-1/2 x 31 inches (100.3 x 78.7 cm)

Sitter identified on the scroll of paper at lower left which bears the date 1789

This charming portrait of a young boy holding a pet bird on a tether--symbolic of someone with nascent leadership (especially military) skills--is characteristic of the portraiture produced during the last quarter of the eighteenth century by Cuban painter Vicente Escobar. Trained in Spain at Madrid's august Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Escobar served as painter to Queen Maria Cristina of Spain in 1827. Among his significant works are a series of portraits of military officials, which at the close of Spanish rule in Cuba were moved to Spain and are currently stored at the Archives of the Indies in Seville.

Master Francisco de Paula Navia y Velasquez is depicted in this portrait in garments that signal him as a "cadet" in the Spanish guard. Such a presentation would have been appropriate for the son of a powerful naval general involved in campaigns in Cuba. Indeed, this sitter's father was almost certainly General Victorio de Navia Osorio, son of a Spanish marquis and head of the Royal Corps of Spanish Guards who commanded 10,000 men between Cadiz and Havana on April 28, 1780. This powerful military contingent consisted of twelve ships, three frigates, four brigs of war, and 82 transport vessels.

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