ALONSO MIGUEL DE TOVAR (Higuera de la Sierra, Huelva, 1678-Madrid, 1752). "Virgin and Child with Saint Anne". Oil on canvas (original canvas). Measurements: 55,5 x 42 cm; 66 x 54 cm (frame). Alonso Miguel de Tovar offers us a devotional image that abandons the pictorial quality of the Sevillian school. In it we see the Infant Jesus flanked by his Virgin and Saint Anne. The child raises his gaze towards the heavenly plane, where a break of glory opens up, with little child angels in the background. Alonso Miguel Tovar most probably trained in the workshop of the painter Juan Antonio Osorio, a great admirer of the work of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, like Tovar. Because of his detailed knowledge of Murillo`s technique, the Cathedral Chapter commissioned him to restore the painting of the Nativity of the Virgin in the chapel of the Immaculate Conception in Seville cathedral. Around 1723 he painted an Immaculate Conception for the chapel of the Casa de Contratación, which was then in Cadiz. This work is currently kept in the cathedral of Cadiz. Isabella of Farnese, the wife of Philip V and a fan of Murillo, called Tovar to the Court between late 1723 and early 1724. Tovar`s arrival in Madrid coincided with the hiring of many artists to decorate the palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso. In 1726 Teodoro Ardemans died and Alonso Miguel Tovar was appointed painter to Philip V`s chamber. Tovar`s work is currently housed in the most important Spanish and international art galleries: the Prado Museum, the National Gallery in London, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville, the Museum of Cadiz, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon and the Museum of Fine Arts in Nancy, among many others.