Pictures were bound to disappear, according to the master. Modern rooms,
small and soberly decorated, were not fitted for the large canvases that
ornamented the walls of drawing rooms in the old days. Besides, the
reception rooms of the present, like the rooms in a doll's house, were
good merely for pretty pictures marked by stereotyped mannerisms. Scenes
taken from nature were out of place in this background. The only way to
make money then was to paint portraits and Renovales forgot his
distinction as an innovator in order to win at any cost fame as a
portrait painter of society people. He painted members of the royal
family in all sorts of postures, not omitting any of their important
occupations; on foot, and on horseback, with a general's plumes or a
gray hunting jacket, killing pigeons or riding in an automobile. He
portrayed the beauties of the oldest families, concealing imperceptibly,
with clever dissimulation, the ravages of time, giving firmness to the
flabby flesh with his brush, holding up the heavy eyelids and cheeks
that sagged with fatigue and the poison of rouge. After successes at
court, the rich considered a portrait by Renovales as an indispensable
decoration for their drawing rooms. They sought him because his
signature cost thousands of dollars; to possess a canvas by him was an
evidence of opulence, quite as necessary as an automobile of the best
make.
Renovales was as rich as a painter can be. It was at that time that he
built what envious people called his "pantheon"; a magnificent mansion
behind the iron grating of the Retiro.
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