Torrents Lladó's portrait of Virginia López. She sat for the painter in 1992 and less than a year later he was dead aged only 47. But in his short life, he produced an extraordinary range of portraits

 Rosa Roda, 1980. Torents Lladó's portraits were in the tradition of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Boldini and Laszló

The painter’s father Joaquín Torrents Cullá, 1976

Young Lady in Furs. In 1975, Torrents Lladó painted Spain’s future King Juan Carlos. He attracted a wide following in the US and painted the Kennedy family. In 1978 it was the turn of Monaco’s Princess Caroline, who later asked him to design the sets for a ballet

Venice's Grand Canal. In the watercolours he painted in Venice, his love for opulence is apparent: his brush catches the magical light and exuberant ornamentation of the churches and the delicate Gothic tracery

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A Palma museum showcases the beguiling work of painter Torrents Lladó,
a worthy heir to the tradition of masters from Velazquez to John Singer Sargent.

Meet Virginia López. That’s her on the left. You most likely don’t know her but spend a few moments taking her in. She won’t mind being looked at. There’s self-assurance in her gaze, defiance. She’s confident, though not conceited. She’s certain of herself, insistent, even. In short, Virginia–without making her sound unladylike–has swagger.

What’s termed the “swagger portrait” was hugely popular throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, with the rich and nouveau riche queueing up to sit for masters from Sir Joshua Reynolds to Gainsborough, and from John Singer Sargent and Boldini to de Laszló.

Virgina López is of a later vintage, though. She’s the work of the late Mallorca-based painter Joaquín Torrents Lladó. She sat for the painter in 1992 and less than a year later he was dead aged only 47. But in his short life, he produced an extraordinary range of portraits in the purest “swagger” style, many of them on display at what was once his home in Palma now a museum open to the public.

“There is much bombast, glamour and dressing up, and not a little unconscious humour,” explains Nicholas Serota, director of London’s Tate Gallery of the style. The term “swagger portrait” perfectly conveys the “mood of those grand manner likenesses that have always been the greatest challenge to a portrait painter’s imagination, and the most revealing of the social aspirations of his sitters”, he says.  

Andrew Wilton, author of The Swagger Portrait, adds that swagger nearly always demands sex appeal, with the sitters of the portraits invariably dashing and overwhelmingly glamorous. In a portrait by Sargent, for instance, the sitter’s wealth is built into the aesthetic of the picture. “Yet it is all done with the greatest decorum,” explains Wilton.

There are few objects in these pictures to tell us about the interests or possessions of the subjects. “There is simply a figure staring solemnly out of a flickering interior, a small, almost claustrophobic space which is only large by implication–like the aristocracy of the sitters themselves–in which precious things are vaguely sensed glimmering.”

Look at Torrents Lladó’s Young Lady in Furs. Or look again at Virginia: her evening gown, her silk organdy shawl and black, full-length gloves are achieved with rapid brush strokes. Yet the opulence, though subtle, is at once apparent.

From an early age Torrents Lladó was passionate about art, theatre, music and cinema. In 1956, aged ten, he began his studies at the Academia Valls in Barcelona, where Antoni Tapies had also studied. In 1961 he turned his full attention to abstract painting but his interest in theatre was also growing and, in 1962, he became a set designer. By the time he was 17, while attending the Escola de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi in Barcelona, he began to gradually distance himself from the abstract art movement which was so prevalent in academic circles at the time, and he moved towards the figurative and more traditional. By returning to the classical tradition he became engaged in work which was at once novel and avant-garde. And as painting materials became more unnatural he began to become increasingly interested in studying the methods of mixing and preparation of materials  as practised by the old masters.

In 1968, though practically assured the post of an instructor at his former art school in Barcelona, he found himself completely at odds with the institution’s teaching methods and philosophy, and turned down the job, vowing never to pick up a brush again.
“He did not wish to reconcile himself with the fashions of an age in which he never wanted to live, nor did he mind belonging to an age whose speech the world had forgotten. The hostility of his peers inspired him and, basically, was his secret encouragement” says author and critic Basilio Baltasar.

Later in the year, he settled in the Mallorcan town of Valldemossa and began working as a graphic designer and stage director. Gradually the intense beauty of Mallorca began to excite him and within a year he had returned to painting. He began by experimenting with landscapes, and was soon doing self-portraits and then portraits. By 1970 he had set up his own art academy focusing on draughtsmanship and traditional painting skills. His reputation soon began to spread, leading poet and author Robert Graves to remark in 1973: “Joaquín Torrents is a painter. Most painters think they are painters, but Joaquín Torrents really is a painter”.

Plenty of other people thought so too. In 1975 he was invited to Copenhagen to paint the Danish royal family and back in Spain he painted Spain’s future King Juan Carlos. He attracted a wide following in the US and painted the Kennedy family. In 1978 it was the turn of Monaco’s Princess Caroline, who later asked him to design the sets for a ballet.

Throughout the 1980s he didn’t stop. “You’d never catch him going up or down the stairs normally. He was always on the run,” his widow Pino Patiño recalls.

He found time, however, to return now and again to his beloved Venice, which he painted hundreds of times in oils and watercolours. Here, as in his portraits, his love for opulence is apparent: his brush catches the magical light and exuberant ornamentation of the churches and the delicate Gothic tracery.

His travels took him to Japan, where he enjoyed enormous success, in 1993. And then, back in Palma, he remained busy with projects until his sudden death. But his portraits remain, testament to a man who swaggered through the world.

Torrents Lladó's Palma home and studio contains around 100 of his works, including striking portraits.
When:	16 Sept-14 Jun: 10am-6pm, Tues-Fri. 15 Jun-15 Sept, 11am-7pm, Tues-Fri. Sat and bank holidays: 10am-2pm.
Where:	C/ de la Portella 9. Palma de Mallorca
Phone:	971 729 835
Price:	€3
Web:	www.jtorrentsllado.com	Where