Figures

Eugenio Lucas Velazquez (1817-1870) was a Spanish painter known for the dramatically composed paintings in the manner of Goya that make him one of the most distinctive painters of the 19th-century Spanish tradition. Figures from 1850-1860 depicts figures in the dramatically composed, darkly atmospheric manner that distinguishes Lucas Velazquez's best work from the more general painting of his contemporaries. Lucas Velazquez was known for his dramatically composed paintings in the manner of Goya, and the 1850-1860 date places this in his most productive period, when he was producing the dramatically composed paintings that are his most distinctive works.

Figures is important in the history of Spanish painting because it demonstrates the dramatically composed, darkly atmospheric manner that Lucas Velazquez brought to painting as one of the most distinctive painters of the 19th-century Spanish tradition. Lucas Velazquez's dramatically composed paintings in the manner of Goya—combining the dramatic composition of the Goya tradition with the darkly atmospheric manner that is his most distinctive contribution—represent one of the most distinctive traditions in 19th-century Spanish painting, and the 1850-1860 painting shows this tradition at its most dramatically composed.

Figures is Lucas Velazquez's dramatically composed Goya manner: figures rendered in the darkly atmospheric manner of one of the most distinctive painters of the 19th-century Spanish tradition. The 1850-1860 painting shows the combination of Goya's dramatic composition with Velazquez's own darkly atmospheric manner.