EUROPEAN ROMANTICISM
DEHODENCQ, Alfred (Paris, 1822 – Paris, 1882)
A Confraternity in Procession along the Calle Génova, Seville
1851
Oil sobre canvas, 111.5 x 161.5 cm
Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza
This painting forms a pair with A Gipsy Dance in the Gardens of the Alcázar in front of the Pavilion of Charles V: both works hung in the Square Hall of the palace of San Telmo in Seville, the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier, Antonio d’Orléans and Luisa Fernanda, the sister of Queen Isabel II of Spain.
During the reign of Isabel II, the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier instituted a sort of parallel court in their palace in Seville where they became the patrons of a large number of contemporary Romantic painters. These included Andalusian painters but also foreigners, particularly French painters, who would make their way to Seville under the protection of the Montpensier with whom they shared their French origins, drawn by the Romantic vision of Spain, particularly embodied in the landscapes, cities, and people of Andalusia. Pharamond Blanchard (1805–1873) and Adrien Dauzats (1804–1868), as well as Dehodencq, executed some of their most important works for the Montpensier that decorated not only the halls of the San Telmo palace on the banks of the Guadalquivir, surrounded by the prettiest garden in Romantic Seville, but also their seasonal residences at Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cadiz) and Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville).
Dehodencq arrived in Seville in November of 1850 and immediately started working for the Duke of Montpensier who entrusted him with his first commission for “two fairly large pictures of which one should reveal firstly the religious aspect, and the other the voluptuous aspect of Spain”. Dehodencq used two of the most typical and profound expressions of the Andalusian character, apparently contrasting, but in fact complimentary: Holy Week and flamenco dancing.
In his first canvas Dehodencq represented a procession along the Calle Génova during the celebration of Holy Week in Seville. The road is packed with people pressed along the stone-paved road at whose edge sit women of rank wearing their black mantilla in sign of mourning for the death of Christ, accompanied by distinguished-looking gentlemen standing behind them. Two ranks of members of the confraternity in their black garb carrying long paschal candles accompany the crucifix and banner of their religious brotherhood. In the background follows a sculpture of the Virgin Dolorosa, lit by a mass of candles under the canopy, characteristic of Sevillian images of the Virgin.
In addition to this pair of canvases, in 1853 Dehodencq painted for the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier the beautiful Portrait of the Infantes Duke and Duchess of Montpensier and their First-Born Daughters which used to hang in the courtyard of San Telmo, as did Sketch for a Portrait of the Infante Duke of Montpensier in the Habit of the Gran Comendador of the Order of Calatrava, and two episodes in the lives of the Orléans entitled, The Entry into Cadiz of Queen Doña María Amalia and The Arrival of Queen Amalia and the Infantes Duke and Duchess of Montpensier at the Convent of Rábida.
José Luis Díez
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