Retrato de Manolito Pendás [Portrait of Manolito Pendás] is proof of Darío Regoyos’ interest in the human figure and was characteristic of his way of understanding portraiture as the manifestation of the essential elements that defined a person.

The child’s personality comes through in the details of his face and head, captured with great sensitivity and skill. The rest of his body has been treated in a more schematic fashion, however, the character’s attitude is flawlessly portrayed. This focus was also a characteristic of Regoyos’ oil portraits, in which his interest in physiognomic traits was noticeably superior to his interest in the model’s body or surroundings. In this way, the artist obtained a high quality expressive representation without having to resort to photographic precision.

During the time he spent in Brussels, Regoyos enrolled at the Belgian Royal Academy of Fine arts in 1879, in the course “Dessin d’après la tête antique”, taught by Belgian painter van Severdonck. At this time, the human figure and portraiture were motifs he chose frequently.