Guarisco Gallery 2012

106 Eugenio Álvarez-Dumont n acclaimed and versatile Spanish painter, Eugenio Álvarez-Dumont specialized in Neoclassical, Romantic, and Impressionist subjects. He was educated at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, and later at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome. Álvarez-Dumont spent four years in Italy studying the Italian masters and receiving a rich education in the history of Italian art. After his stay in Italy, he traveled extensively, spending a good bit of time in North Africa painting Orientalist themes, and in Paris documenting leisurely scenes in an Impressionist style. He finally settled in Madrid, where he devoted himself to teaching and painting. Luncheon of the Boating Party, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. ‘At the Beach in Biarritz’ shows the influence of the Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s famous painting ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’. Like Renoir, Alvarez-Dumont portrays an undeniable vision of carefree leisure. Renoir’s light, bright palette and feathery brushstrokes of the Impressionist style, and his depiction of an elegant crowd seeking cool relief in the shade from a sun- drenched day, inspired Álvarez-Dumont to explore the theme of fashionable leisure. The brilliant, diffuse light of the shore and the elegantly attired ladies in Alvarez-Dumont's depiction of Biarritz resemble the atmospheric handling of light and casual elegance displayed in Renoir's masterwork Luncheon of the Boating Party. detail A