Anita Ramírez, in black

Anita Ramírez, in Black, painted in 1915 and held at the Brooklyn Museum, depicts a celebrated figure in Zuloaga's social and artistic world — Anita Ramírez was a Chilean socialite and close friend of the painter who appears in several of his works. The painting belongs to the tradition of the grand portrait in black — a specifically Spanish genre running from Velázquez through Goya to Sargent — in which the dominant monochrome of the costume becomes both a formal challenge and a psychological statement. Zuloaga's mastery of black — differentiating the matte of silk, the sheen of satin, the texture of lace — was one of his most admired technical accomplishments and one that connected him explicitly to the Spanish tradition. The 1915 date places the work during the height of Zuloaga's international career; the Brooklyn Museum's acquisition reflects the American enthusiasm for his work in the 1910s and 1920s. Anita Ramírez's own cosmopolitan world — Chilean wealth, Parisian culture, Spanish artistic circles — is encoded in the painting's sophisticated address.

The all-black costume requires exceptional tonal range: Zuloaga differentiates silk, velvet, and lace through variations of warm and cool black, specular highlights, and absorbed shadow. The face emerges from this darkness with heightened luminosity. The compositional structure is typically Zuloagesque — dark ground, compressed space, figure dominating the format.