#AntonioCabralBejarano
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Una bolera (A Bolero Dancer) by Antonio Cabral Bejarano (Spanish) - Oil on canvas / 1842 - Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga (Spain) #womeninart #art #dancer #oilpainting #bolero #bolera #AntonioCabralBejarano #artwork #womensart #SpanishArt #SpanishArtist #style #MuseoCarmenThyssenMálaga #CabralBejarano
Antonio Cabral Bejarano was a Spanish painter, considered to be an adherent of both the Romantic painting styles found across Europe and the specifically Hispanic painting school of Costumbrismo. His ancestors for several generations were painters, and he was initially trained by his father before he and his own sons became active in his native city of Seville, getting many commissions from its municipal government before becoming the first Director of the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville. In "A Bolero Dancer" (Una bolera), Cabral Bejarano takes us to the banks of the river Guadalquivir, in Seville’s riverside district of Triana opposite the Arenal and the Torre del Oro, which are clearly visible in the background. We see a young women with fair complexion dancing and playing the castanets. Dressed in the typical pink costume of bolero dancers, identified by the cut, pointed white hem and ruffles of the dress and by the demi-pointe shoes that were used solely for dancing, she performs a typical dance step with castanets. The composition, in which the dancer is depicted opposite one of Seville’s main landmarks, is significant as it combines the most appealing aspects of the city in the first half of the 19th century – its fascinating Arab ruins and ancient buildings – with the bolero, which from the Romantic Age became one of the most successful dances performed in theaters across Europe, identified clearly with Spain and, initially, with Andalusia. There are multiple versions of this, but this one clearly displays certain exquisite painterly details that set it apart from the others. The artist takes the liberty of varying certain features of the figure, giving it an individual quality, such as the position of the dancer’s necklace, in which the strands are separated, and the rendering of the swirling flounces of her skirt and the background foliage in very supple brushwork.
April 17, 2025 at 6:38 AM