Carmelita Requena
Thomas Eakins American
After completing his studies in Paris, Eakins traveled to Spain in 1869. While in Madrid, he visited the Museo del Prado, where he admired the paintings of Diego Velázquez and Jusepe de Ribera. He then settled for the winter in Seville, writing to his sister, in Philadelphia, that he was painting Carmelita Requeña, the seven-year-old daughter of street performers. This vivid portrait sketch, made in preparation for a large multifigure composition (on view nearby), reveals Eakins’s lessons in Paris with Léon Bonnat, who embraced the painting traditions of the Spanish Baroque.
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