ESTEBAN MARCH

(Valencia, c. 1610 - 1662/67)

ESTEBAN MARCH (Valencia, c. 1610 - 1662/67) "Cabin with shepherds and cattle"

Oil on canvas. On the reverse, old label with the collection number and the General Repairs Fund. Reference bibliography: ANGULO, D. AND PEREZ SANCHEZ, AE, Toledo painting. First half of the 17th century, Diego Velazquez Institute, Madrid, 1972, p. 350, plate 280; MARCO, V., Baroque painting in Valencia (1600-1637), CEEH, Madrid, 2021, p. 409, cat. no. 57. One of the painters who best assimilated Pedro Orrente's style in 17th-century Valencia was Esteban March. His initial training is uncertain, possibly in the Ribalta circle, but there is no doubt about the influence that Orrente's models and technique had on most of his production. Although very little specific information is known about his biography, his signed works present him as one of his main followers, both in repertoires and models as well as in the type of loose brushstrokes and chromatic palette, often of Venetian origin. His battles are well known, but he also frequently practised religious painting, especially paintings with biblical themes, portraits and genre painting. In this field, in which numerous drawings by his hand known popularly as "caprichos" are preserved, his dependence on Orrente is also evident both in the models and in the technique, as in this totally unpublished painting that represents the arrival of some shepherds to the sheepfold. In it, his characteristic loose brushstrokes, a typical chromatic palette of earthy tones in a Valencian key and his usual models can be perfectly appreciated. Among them, it is worth highlighting the pair of shepherds leading the cattle, with their outfits, hats and staffs, identical to those that appear in his “capricious works” on paper. The Orrentean taste for the anecdotal and the everyday can be found in the pots in the foreground and in the wide range of beasts that appear populating the scene, among which are the typical lambs, an ox, a goat, a mule, a dog, two rabbits and a turkey. Two pigeons are also resting on one of the elements of the cabin. The influence of Orrente is also evident in its twilight landscape in the background. The painting, which is one of the few examples of genre painting in the Valencian school of the 17th century, must be put in relation to a work by Orrente kept in the Prado Museum that was attributed a few years ago to Esteban March (Marco 2021, p. 409, cat. no. 57). With similar dimensions (58 x 90 cm), it seems to represent a narrative sequence of this same episode: The Return from the Sheepfold (P001020); although in this one only a shepherd appears and the group of animals is much smaller as the ones from the corral, such as the turkey and the rabbits, are not present. Both share the same technique and models,a similar composition and an identical background landscape. Dimensions: 64 x 93 cm.