New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-04-30

made. Following the Holford "Olivares,'
now in the Hispanic Museum. and the
Fraga King Philip" purchased by MIR.
| F'rick. comes the deeply interesting
! Portrait Of an Ecclesiastic," which we
reproduce II was imported here by the
Enrich Galleries. and has just passed
I thence into the possession of Mr.. Henry
r.. Huntington, of Los Angeles, the
same collector who bought the Hoe COPY
Of the Gutenberg Bible the other day.
Even i'm a photograph one can see that
this is an authentic and beautiful exam
! pie of the master
II was obtained by Mr.. Enrich from
/ the collection of the Marques de la Vega
Tnclan. well known as one of the lead
ing Spanish connoisseurs and for his
restoration OF the Casa del Greco in
! Toledo. The portrait, which is painted
upon canvas twenty inches wide and
. sixteen and a half inches high. has been
thus described in THE Burlington Maya
zine by Seior Beruete. the high author
ity on Velasquez:
! It must be placed in the chronology of
Nelasquez no earlier than the last years
| OF youth spent in his native city, Seville
and no later than the first years of his
| sojourn I'm Madrid that is to say, be-
| tween 1920 and 1924.
| Every detail Of the painting leads me to
| this conclusion. The lateral lighting of the
| mead producing strong contrast between
| the side in light and the side in shadow
! the warm tints prevailing In the dark
! portion, the pronounced relief of the feat
ures the strong lighting of the salient
! points, accentua ted by the artist with the
tinest touches OF almost pure white on the
| forehead, nose and lower lip: the sure,
| vigorous handling OF the stray locks ~
| hair. looking as if they were engraved
| Father than painted-in fact, the general
| tonality-are characteristic Of the works
! produced by Nelasquez during those years
Nor are these characteristics repeated
| later except in the famous picture. Los
Borrachos.' In which the master left us
| "A compendium of his earlier works and
| finally abandoned the manner of interpret
| ing nature which he had followed until
| then. II is known that from the time when
| ne first set foot i'm Italy he changed his
manner for freer technique in which finer
tints predomnated This was a second evo-
| luton precurslve of the third, in which
were evolved the mastery works OF his
later years.
Who the sitter was we arc quite lgno-
rant. but his ecclesiastical status is plain
! ~ shown by the skull cap visible on the
| back Of his head by the black collar of
|
! rather coarse gray woollen hood which
| covers his shoulders
The white line Of the shirt is tho high
! est note and the raven black hair the low -
| est The tint OF the background. of warm
| gray, very similar To that OF many other
! backgrounds in the masters portraits. har-
monizcs with the predominant tints of the
| head and drapery.
| The picture was i'm Seville during the last
! third OF the nineteenth century. i'm the re-
| rowned collection of Don Jose Canaveral.
| I'm which appeared other fine works by
| Nelasquez Christ and the Pilgrims at
| Emmaus.' which. I believe has been taken
| To America within these last few months.
ana the 81. Peter" which is now in my
| own possession.
! Mr.. Huntington is warmly to he con-
/ graduated upon his acquisition of this
painting. II is, we suppose, selfish
thought. hut for the life of MS VIC can
cannot help rejecting on how charming
/ II would be 10 hear that he intended to
hang IT in the Hispsnic Museum. along
side the three beautiful paintings by
NelasqueZ already there