Sujet

Death of Alfonso XII (The Last Kiss), 1887. Creator: Juan Antonio Benlliure y Gil.

Légende

Death of Alfonso XII (The Last Kiss), 1887. Alternative title: Last moments of King Alfonso XII. At the foot of the simple bed where the body of the ill-fated monarch lies are his confessor, Cardinal Benavides, and the Duke of Montpensier, among other figures barely distinguishable in the dim light of the room. Beside the head of the bed stands his widow, Queen Maria Cristina of Habsburg-Lorraine, Alfonso XII's second wife, dressed in mourning and wiping away her tears with a handkerchief. Next to her is her eldest daughter, the Infanta Maria de las Mercedes, and on the other side, the young Infanta Maria Teresa, who sits up at the deathbed to give her deceased father a final kiss, lifted by her nurse and gazing with bewildered eyes at her mother's grief-stricken face. Numerous flowers are scattered on the bed, some of them fallen onto the carpeted floor of the room. Alfonso XII died of tuberculosis on November 25, 1885, at the age of 28, in El Pardo Palace. This is undoubtedly one of the clearest examples of opportunism by a painter in taking advantage of recent political circumstances or events as the subject of a composition submitted to national exhibitions, in order to gain the favour of the official jury, the public and the critics.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/Heritage Art

Notre référence

HRM26A41_069

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

48.0Mo (3.1Mo) / 42.0cm x 28.6cm / 4960 x 3379 (300dpi)

Mots clés

nature building female women woman people male child children girl girls interior man men health family religious father daughters flower flowers plant plants painting light country marriage dark religion Spain Spanish fatherhood parent Austria monarch guy sad museum bed room color dead king mother royal death dying palace Christianity crying dress Austrian darkness motherhood location Catholic Catholicism century Roman Catholic handkerchief inside sadness parenting cry pregnant pregnancy disease consumption royalty princess concept grief weeping mourning dad APPAREL bishop grieving mum Prado Museum princesses cardinal oil Painting Colour hankie dead body 19th century daughter Indoors diseased widow Roman Catholicism dead bodies last rites mourner mourners nineteenth century archbishop bedchamber deathbed mourning dress Museo del Prado sovereign TB tuberculosis Alfonso XII King of Spain paying respects bedroom Queen oil El Pardo Palace King of Spain Ki Queen of Spain bed chamber Musee du Prado Heritage Art 19th-century clothing & dress fashion & clothing Canvas Alfonso Francisco de As?s Fernando P?o Juan Mar?a de la Concepci?n Gregorio Pelayo de Borb?n y Borb? Alfonso Francisco de Asis Fernando Pio Juan Maria de la Concepcion Gregorio Pelayo de Borbon y Borbo Juan Antonio Benlliure y Gil Benlliure y Gil Juan Antonio Juan Antonio Benlliure Benlliure Juan Antonio Gil Juan Antonio Benlliure y Gil Juan Antonio Benlliure Juan Antonio Benlliure Gil Benlliure y Gil Joan Antoni Joan Antoni Benlliure y Gil