French or Spanish school, ca. 1820. "Portrait of a lady. Oil on canvas. With its original canvas. Period frame. Measurements: 60 x 46 cm; 71 x 57 cm (frame). This portrait shows a sober and elegant composition, with the model in the foreground, with a long bust, on a dark and neutral background that enhances her physical presence. The formal treatment of the light is outstanding, very carefully studied and balanced. The figure is strongly illuminated, standing out against the background, and the painter models the volumes and forms through the use of elaborate half-lights. The brushstrokes used are precise and practically invisible in the face, the hair and the flower. The woman is depicted frontally, with her body slightly turned, but with a deep blue gaze. As in the rest of Europe, portraiture became the leading genre in Spanish painting in the 19th century as a result of the new social structures that were established in the Western world during that century, embodying the ultimate expression of the transformation in the taste and mentality of the new clientele that emerged among the nobility and the wealthy gentry, who were to take the reins of history in this period. While official circles gave precedence to other artistic genres, such as history painting, and the incipient collectors encouraged the profusion of genre paintings, portraiture was in great demand for paintings intended for the more private sphere, as a reflection of the value of the individual in the new society. This genre embodies the permanent presence of the image of its protagonists, to be enjoyed in the privacy of a studio, in the everyday warmth of a family cabinet or presiding over the main rooms of the house.