Oil painting entitled 'La Posada' by José Benlliure y Gil. Spanish School, ca. 1890.

Interior of the courtyard of an old inn, with six armed figures seated around a table, a poodle and some pigeons, graffiti of musketeers fighting on the left wall, a vase on a stool in the foreground and a dark recess in the background with a wooden balcony above.

Bequeathed by Henry L. Florence

Bequeathed by Henry L. Florence, 1916

Historical significance: This work is typical of paintings of the second half of the 19th century influenced by 17th-century Dutch paintings; a genre associated principally with Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891). In Spain such pictures were commonly called 'casacones'.

The present work depicts cavalrymen in 17th-century costume with swords, ruffs and large-rimmed hats at a table in the courtyard of an old inn. Its title 'The Posada' is Spanish for 'Inn'. The naïve graffiti of soldiers fencing on the left wall recurs in other compositions, such as the Tavern scene in the collection of Vicente Fuster.This painting was probably executed in Seville in the 1890s, as were a number of similar scenes (See La Taverna, ca. 1890 and A la taverna, both in a private collection, and La tertulia, ca. 1890, collection of Vicente Fuster). The earthen palette, enlivened by small touches of red, reproduces the subdued colour scheme typical of 17th-century Dutch paintings. The thick impasto and brilliant touches of colour are characteristic of the artist.

José Benlliure y Gil (1855-1937) was born near Valencia. He received his first artistic training his father, a local decorative painter, and then studied under Francisco Domingo (1842-1920) at the Academia de San Carlos in Valencia. He travelled to Rome, where he was commissioned by King Amedeo to paint portraits of his children. He was director of the Spanish Academy in Rome in 1903 until 1912, when he returned to Valencia. He achieved considerable success on the European art market, as well as in Spain. Benlliure specialised in genre paintings of 17th century subjects. He later adopted greater realism and more contemporary subject matter.

Paintings of everyday life had been popular from the 17th century in Spain, where Francisco Pacheco in his Arte de la pintura (1649) called the naturalistic genre scenes of Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) 'bodegones', from the name of a rough public eating-place ('bodegon' in modern Spanish means 'still-life'). The genre was further developed by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828). During the 19th century genre paintings emphasised social concerns, combined with a growing interest for the direct observation of nature and the rendering of light. At the same time, there was a revival for the 17th-century Dutch imagery in paintings called in Spain 'casacones', which merged history and genre subjects.

José Benlliure y Gil (1855-1937) was born near Valencia. His father, a local decorative painter, gave him his first artistic training before he studied under Francisco Domingo (1842-1920) at the Academia de San Carlos in Valencia. He went to Rome where he settled definitively and was entrusted there by the King Amedeo of Savoy with the portraits of his children. He became director of the Spanish Academy in Rome in 1903 until 1912 when he returned to Valencia. From Rome, he achieved considerable success within the European art market while his reputation was growing in Spain as well.

This painting is a good example of Benlliure's genre painting which belong to the category commonly called 'casacones'. It shows a group of soldiers, dressed in typical 17th-century fashion, gathered around a table in the courtyard of an old inn. This painting probably dates from 1890s, a period in which Benlliure produced a series of similar pictures and witnesses the renewed taste for the imagery of the Dutch Golden Age that took place in Spain at the end of the 19th century.

P.23-1917