Self-portrait

Painted in 1824 and in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, this early self-portrait was made when Esquivel was approximately twenty-two years old, still training in Seville under the tutelage of the Real Academia de Santa Isabel de Hungría. Self-portraiture at so young an age signals both ambition and a desire to document the beginning of a career — the young artist testing his skills against his own face, the most available and compliant subject. The work predates Esquivel's move to Madrid by several years and belongs entirely to his Sevillian formation: the dark ground, warm flesh tones, and psychological directness recall the portrait tradition of Murillo and the Spanish masters he was absorbing in the city's churches and collections. That MNAC holds this early work in Barcelona suggests an acquisition history separate from the Madrid years — possibly through a Catalan collector or cultural institution drawn to Esquivel's Sevillian roots.

The young Esquivel builds his self-portrait with the academic tools he was then mastering: careful preparation of the ground, systematic progression from dark to light in the face, and a smooth final surface without the confident spontaneity of his mature work. The face is closely observed — the artist can hold his own gaze in the mirror indefinitely — and the modelling, while less sophisticated than his 1840s technique, is already spatially convincing.