They Strut About Elegantly ("Lindamente se pavonean")
1807–45
Medium
Pen and dark brown ink with brush over traces of black graphite underdrawing (in one of the faces at the bottom) on off-white paper
Dimensions
7-3/8 x 5-5/16 in. (18.7 x 13.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Dodge Fund, 1939
Accession Number
39.29.21
Tags
Art Historical Context
Leonardo Alenza y Nieto (, 1807–1845), a master of 19th-century Costumbr, captures the whimsical in *They Strut About Eleg ("Lindamente se pavan")*, a lively drawing from the Metropolitan Museum Art's collection. This intimate sheet, acquired through the Dodge Fund in 9, depicts men and in a playful tableau, evoking the strutting pride suggested by the title. Alenza's keen eye for Spanish customs shines through, blending humor with sharp social observation typical of the Romantic-era genre scenes that celebrated—and gently mocked—everyday life. Executed in pen and dark brown ink with brushwor...
About the Artist
Leonardo Alenza y Nieto · 1807–1845
Leonardo Alenza y Nieto (1807–1845) was a Spanish painter and caricaturist whose brief life produced a body of work remarkable for its satirical wit, psychological penetration, and painterly freedom. Born in Madrid, he trained at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, the preeminent institution for artistic education in Spain, where he absorbed the technical foundations of academic pai...