Manuela de Errazu

Manuela de Errazu was connected to the wealthy Cuban-Spanish Errazu family and moved in the circles where Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta was a dominant presence as a society portraitist. The 1870 portrait in the Prado presents her at the beginning of the period when Raimundo was establishing himself as the premier Spanish portrait painter in Paris — the successor to his father Federico as the dynasty's representative to fashionable society. Raimundo's female portraits from this period combine the technical accomplishments of his academic formation with a sensitivity to fashion and social nuance that made his work exceptionally appealing to wealthy clients. The Errazu family's patronage was central to his Paris career — they occupied an adjacent position to the Spanish colony in Paris that Raimundo served and to which he belonged.

The 1870 female portrait shows Raimundo's developing command of fashionable dress rendering — the crinolines and bustles of Second Empire fashion required considerable technical ingenuity to represent convincingly. His handling of silk and lace achieves the social distinction the sitters required while demonstrating genuine optical observation of fabric behavior.