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Matías Sorzano Nájera (1775-1862) was a highly influential and renowned character in the town of Orihuela, where he was a trader in colonial goods and a property administrator. His portrait is a splendid example of Vicente López's artistic maturity and reveals the painter's desire to assimilate the new Romantic trends prevailing in official art circles and in the tastes of the wealthy clientele during the reign of Isabel II of Spain. In this sense he pays greater attention to the domestic atmosphere surrounding his characters, set in interiors shrouded in semi-darkness, usually beside great gathered draperies and large windows through which the light is directed to underscore their vital presence.
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