Maja with a Small Dog

Exaltation of the maja as the female embodiment par excellence of the notion of what was genuinely Spanish was an important aspect of the works of 19th-century painters influenced by the art of Goya. It is therefore a common feature of the painting of Eugenio Lucas Vel�zquez, undoubtedly the most faithful interpreter of the brilliant Aragonese artist’s aesthetic universe in Spanish Romantic painting.

A young maja sits by a river in the open countryside leaning against a rock. She poses calmly, her black hair teased to stand out strikingly in the fashionable style of 1785-90 and adorned with a caramba, a type of satin and lace headdress that was all the rage at the time, albeit among ladies of a certain class, with large bows that dangle behind her neck. Her clothing is equally striking: a short, close-fitting jacket worn open to show off the obvious sensuality of the revealing neckline of her dress, its folds draped suggestively over her body and a wide cummerbund tied around the waist. She wears satin slippers with buckles on her feet and her red shawl has slipped down her back. Beside her a small, woolly-coated dog with an alert, attentive gaze stares straight ahead with its beady, black eyes, immediately capturing the spectator’s attention. Visible on the other side of the river are some herders leading a group of bulls to graze beneath a sweeping cloud-filled twilight sky.

The present painting is unique in the painter’s very prolific career. Its composition and considerable size make it the only as yet known example that bears a close resemblance to Goya’s model immortalised in the Clothed Maja, which it inevitably recalls both in the details of the woman’s clothing and in the attitude of her pose - in this case with a more veiled and restrained provocation - and in the emphasis on picturesque details of her appearance and colourful attire complete with fashionable accessories such as the fan and the flower she holds.