Spanish modernism in nineteenth-century France: The art of Luis Jimenez Aranda

This essay is an examination of the art of a Sevillan painter named Luis Jimenez Aranda (1845-1928) and his unique position as a young Spanish artist in late nineteenth-century Paris. Through his paintings and sketches, Jimenez Aranda surveyed the contemporary world with a modern flair predating both Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta (1870-1945), and Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923), two painters considered to be the principle representatives of modern Spanish painting at the end of the nineteenth century. Along with many other young painters at this time, Zuloaga and Sorolla studied abroad in France and Italy but like most Spanish artists, they eventually returned to their native country to live and work. Their time abroad seemed to bring them back to their Spanish painting roots, while for Jimenez Aranda, his time in Rome (and Paris especially) encouraged the artist's penchant for foreign subjects and styles. Yet, even in his lifetime, the artist failed to elicit the amount of interest given to his brother Jose and other Spanish contemporaries.;By focusing on the works executed while Jimenez Aranda lived in France, and primarily in Paris, we can construct a more complete synthesis of how the artist affected ideas of Spanish modern painting in nineteenth-century France and Spain in the decades prior to the work of artists such as Sorolla, thus providing the foundation from which their art could grow. By eschewing the traditional approach to painting that so many of his Spanish contemporaries followed, Jimenez Aranda sought to engage modernity. By blending Spanish and French painting styles, the artist showed that his work as a Sevillan artist in Paris was significantly advanced in comparison to other Spanish painters at this time. Specifically, the painting entitled Lady at the Paris Exposition (1889) exemplifies his modernity of style through a complex visual celebration of the Spanish artist's painting career in Paris.