Lot 1117 Dα

The painting has been in the family since its creation. It depicts the son of the then German ambassador to Spain. The portrait of this boy was painted in 1890, the year Ambassador Ferdinand Eduard Freiherr von Stumm was recalled to Berlin. A double portrait of the ambassador and his wife, painted in Madrid in 1889 by Salvador Martinez Cubells, is now in the collection of the German Historical Museum in Berlin (inv. no. 1889/1890).
Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta was born in Rome into a widely ramified family of artists of noble origin. His grandfather was the painter and director of the Prado Museum José de Madrazo; his father Federico and his uncle Luis were also painters, as was his brother Ricardo. His brother Juan, in turn, was an architect. Accordingly, the Madrazo family is considered the most important dynasty of painters in 19th and early 20th century Spain.