EDUARDO ZAMACOIS Y ZABALA (Bilbao, 1842 - Madrid, 1871)."Character", 1862.Oil on panel.Signed and

EDUARDO ZAMACOIS Y ZABALA (Bilbao, 1842 - Madrid, 1871).
"Character", 1862.
Oil on panel.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 16 x 13 cm; 30 x 26 cm (frame).
Here Zamacois uses all his skill to capture with precise strokes and lucid chromatic adjustments the qualities of the clothes and every detail of the domestic interior. The eighteenth-century figure is depicted full-length, with a certain aristocratic haughtiness, captured in his vivid, instantaneous expression. A painter of Romantic genre painting, Eduardo Zamacois showed an inclination for painting from a very early age, beginning his training in his native Bilbao with the teachers Joaquín Balaca and Cosme Duñabeitia. Shortly afterwards he moved with his family to Madrid and finally entered the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1856. There he became a pupil of Federico de Madrazo. Under his tutelage he devoted himself to making copies in the Prado Museum, especially of Velázquez, Ribera and Murillo, thus developing his skill in drawing and colour. In 1860 he went to Paris on the advice of his master, who had him among his favourite pupils and recommended that he continue his training with Ernest Meissonier, one of the most famous genre painters of the time. In his studio, Zamacois refined his technique based on the preciosist meticulousness that was so much admired at the time. At the same time, he studied at the Imperial and Special Drawing Schools. His stay in the city on the Seine brought him into contact with intellectuals such as Cabanel, Bonnat and Alexandre Dumas, as well as with art dealers such as Retlinger, who offered him a contract. It was around this time that the Provincial Council of Bizkaia awarded him a grant for his studies, which enabled him to devote himself to his work and to the cultural wealth that Parisian life had to offer in peace and quiet. He was a regular customer at the Café Moulouse, where he shared a social gathering with José Laguna, Eduardo León Escura and Jean Vibert, among others. A regular exhibitor at the official Paris Salons, he was awarded the first medal in 1867. The following year he moved to Rome to work in the studio of Fortuny, who was then in Madrid. Around this time he signed an advantageous contract with the prominent art dealer Adolphe Goupil, who opened the doors to important buyers such as Matilde Bonaparte, the Princes Metternich and the writer Charles Dickens. A year later Fortuny moved to Paris and Zamacois introduced him to the cultural life of the city by introducing him to Meissonier and the Vibert circle of painters. During these years Zamacois took part in various editions of the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, where he received a third-class honourable mention in 1860 and a third medal in 1862, 1864 and 1867. His fame grew and in 1870 he won the gold medal at the Paris Salon and was decorated with the Legion of Honour. Shortly afterwards, as a result of the war between France and Prussia, he returned to Madrid. He died there shortly afterwards, at the early age of twenty-nine. His work is housed in the Museo del Prado, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo Municipal de Málaga, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown (Massachusetts), among many others.