Joaquín Gutiérrez de la Vega

Joaquín Gutiérrez de la Vega kept a small studio above a bakery in Madrid, where the smell of bread mingled with turpentine. He painted portraits so lifelike that sitters swore he’d captured their thoughts, not just their faces; one critic called his 1851 Retrato de la Duquesa de San Lorenzo “a knife through the shoulder blades” for how it pinned its subject to the canvas. Look up that portrait and you’ll see why Goya’s shadow lingers in every collar and cuff.