Q59771209

Held in the Museo del Prado and dated to 1715, this canvas by Jean-Baptiste Santerre reached Madrid through the channels of Franco-Spanish diplomatic or aristocratic exchange that characterised relations between the two Bourbon courts after Philip V's accession to the Spanish throne in 1700 brought a French prince to Madrid. The Prado's collection of French painting, while less extensive than its Spanish and Flemish holdings, includes significant examples acquired through royal gift and diplomatic exchange in the eighteenth century. A Santerre in Madrid in 1715 was made at the very end of his life — he died around 1717 — and represents his most refined technical achievement, when his soft luminosity and intimate figure style had achieved complete mastery. Without a confirmed title, the subject is uncertain but likely conforms to his established specialisation in female figures and intimate domestic subjects.

A late Santerre canvas shows the full resolution of his technical development: flesh passages of extraordinary softness, achieved through multiple glazing layers over a warm ground; light that seems to emanate from within the figure rather than to fall upon it; and compositional simplicity that focuses all attention on the human presence.