ESP

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Dornijp, Holanda, 1836 - Wiesbaden, Alemania, 1912

In spite of his Dutch origin, Lawrence Alma-Tadema is one of the most well-known painters in Great Britain's history. He was born in Dornijp (Friesland), Holland, on January 8, 1836. In 1852 he entered the Antwerp Academy, where he studied with Gustav Wappers and Nicaise de Keyser, to later work as an assistant to Baron Hendryk Leys. His experience with these historic painters marked his career. Until mid-1860, he painted themes derived from the history of the Merovingians, but then he became more interested in Egyptian and Roman motifs, and was recognized as the most important artist to elaborate representations based on Classic Mediterranean culture. In 1870, following the death of Marie Pauline Gressin, his first wife, he settled in London, where he married Laura Elizabeth Epps (1871), and lived there for the rest of his life. There he developed an important career and achieved renown not only in England but in the rest of the continent as well, especially for his paintings devoted to reconstructing scenes of Roman life. He became an associate member of the Royal Academy of Art in 1876 and a full member in 1879. From 1907 onward he was also a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He was decorated as an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1878 and in 1890 he was named an honorary member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. He died in Wiesbaden (Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany) on June 28, 1912.

Jugadores de ajedrez (Chess Players), 1865

Oil on wood panel, 40.5 x 55.5cm

The interior reveals an elaborately architecture decorated with paintings that touch on themes that archaeology put within our reach and that Alma-Tadema knew how to glean from the collections of the museums he visited. Architectural details and decorative motifs are meticulously reproduced, as can be seen in the column with its lotus flower decoration, one of the most commonly used motifs in ancient Egypt. In addition, his handling of the furnishings and other objects that appear in the room is notable, particularly the table where the game takes place, converted here into an important focal point of the action portrayed. The clothing and personal ornaments of the people who appear in this interior receive similar treatment. The artist also includes a view of the exterior, showing a garden with typical plants such as palm trees, enclosed within a wall, reminiscent of the wall paintings that decorate tombs that have survived intact until today. An essential atmospheric touch completes the scene, an intense blue sky that gives closure to the exterior. An interesting contrast of light is created between interior and exterior, and the artist makes use of this to emphasize certain of the figures who participate in the scene, in particular the female figure who watches the game intently, certainly pondering over which moves the players should make. It was painted in 1865, shortly after his first visit to London on the occasion of the International Exposition of 1863, where Alma-Tadema was fascinated by the objects from classic and Egyptian cultures that he saw at the British Museum. In addition to the technical virtuosity of this piece, which was recognized by no less than John Ruskin, one of the most eminent critics of the day, this piece is a good example of this phase of his career.


Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa

Barcelona, España 1871 - Pollensa, España, 1959

Anglada Camarasa was born in Barcelona on September 11, 1871. He began to study painting with Tomás Moragas (1837-1906) and then with Modest Urgell, at the Escola de Belles Arts in Barcelona. At the outset of the 20th century, he settled in Paris, and in 1901, following his participation in the International Exposition of Dresden along with compatriots Ignacio Zuloaga (1870-1945) and Francisco Iturrino (1864-1924), he gained renown beyond his home country. Along with various distinctions in international exhibitions he maintained an active studio where he taught students from different countries (among whom figured Argentineans Tito Cittadini and Raúl Mazza and the Uruguayan José Cúneo). He moved to Mallorca in 1914, settling in Pollensa. He was accompanied by disciple Tito Cittadini, with whom he founded the Escuela de Pollensa in 1916. Mallorca marked his return to landscape painting, where he maintained his style of brilliant color applied with a loaded brush. In addition he also painted portraits and genre pieces that depicted typical local inhabitants and their popular customs. In 1917 he was named an honorary member of the Hispanic Society of America, in New York. He held exhibitions in Madrid, Paris, Berlin, London and also in Buenos Aires, where his work was highly appreciated. He died in 1959 in the port of Pollensa on July 7th. In 1967 his house was opened to the public as a private museum.

Paisaje con nubes (Landscape with Clouds), n/d

Oil on wood panel, 37 x 49cm

Paisaje con nubes (Landscape with Clouds) of Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa provides a good example of his composing scheme, his use of color and the handling of material that employed in a great deal of his production. The loaded brushstrokes and striking impasto are notable, at his service here in order to describe nature. The mountainous formation of this landscape is built up with thick strokes in different directions that mark the forms that make up the elements of the landscape: ochres and blues combined with reds that lean toward bordeaux, articulating an ascending rhythm that culminates in a large rocky peak that gives a finishing touch to the scene. The foothills in the foreground are clearly differentiated with the same technique, where the use of ochres is complemented with white. This appears once again in the sky, where a large cloud seems to move as if it were a great flame. This cloud formation, made up of white and light blue brushstrokes, constitutes the element that the artist chooses to highlight, and it becomes the painting's dominant feature. The forms present in the landscape and, above all, the use of free, vigorous brushstrokes, are the essential elements that breathe life into this composition.


Juan Manuel Blanes

Montevideo, Uruguay, 1830 - Pisa, Italia, 1901

Blanes was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on June 8, 1830, into a family of six siblings, and he died on April 15, 1901, in Pisa, Italy. In Montevideo his early learning took place in different schools, but he had to abandon his studies during a time in order to work and contribute to the family's economy. In his adolescence, his self-taught drawing skills became manifest. Following a season in the interior of the country, he returned to Montevideo and began to work as a typographer at La Constitución newspaper in 1851, a job that he would hold for two years. At this time he began a series of works on historical themes and in 1854 he set up his first painting studio, and he dedicated himself to portraiture. In 1855 he had to leave Montevideo as a result of amorous disputes and he settled in Salto, Uruguay. In December, 1856, he moved to Concepción del Uruguay in the province of Entre Ríos, in Argentina, a protégé of Justo José de Urquiza. He painted eight epic canvases of battles for the Entre Ríos leader that came to hang in the Palacio San José. Thus began his career and fame as a painter, specializing in themes related to the Río de la Plata's history. Alternating his place of residency between Montevideo, Concepción and Buenos Aires, he fulfilled countless commissions and portraits. In 1858, Urquiza entrusted the decoration of the same palace's Oratorio to him. In 1860, by way of a sanctioned law, he received a pension to further his studies in Europe. The following year he settled in Florence, Italy, where he attended historic painter Antonio Ciseri's (1821-1891) studio and school. His stay in Europe extended until 1864, when he returned to his native Montevideo. In 1870 he traveled to Buenos Aires and began a series of historic canvases with Argentinean themes. In reference to the epidemic that had been unleashed in this city, he painted Un episodio de fiebre amarilla en Buenos Aires (An Episode of Yellow Fever in Buenos Aires) in 1871, that was exhibited at the old Teatro Colón in December of the same year, today in the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales in Montevideo, Uruguay. Between 1879 and 1882 he made his second trip to Europe. He toured Florence and Venice in Italy in addition to several cities in the south of France. In 1882 he also won a gold medal at the Exposición Continental held in Buenos Aires. Upon his return from Europe, already set up in Montevideo, he received numerous official and private commissions for historic paintings. In 1887 he painted El general Roca ante el Congreso argentino (General Roca before the Argentinean Congress, 1887, Congreso Nacional) at the request of friends of president Julio A. Roca. In 1890 he toured cities in Europe and the Orient with his children, returning alone to Montevideo in 1891. In 1896 he finished the painting Ocupación militar del Río Negro, 1879 (Military Occupation of Río Negro, 1879), now in the Museo Histórico Nacional in Buenos Aires, which he had begun four years earlier. Two years prior to his death, he settled in Italy trying to find a son who had disappeared in that country. Death found him there. His remains were transported and buried at the Cementerio Central de Montevideo.

The Captive, c. 1880

Oil on canvas, 46 x 71 cm

From a very young age, Uruguayan artist Juan Manuel Blanes developed a large part of his artistic production in Argentina. He painted historical themes, portraits and allegorical compositions and was admired by intellectuals of the era. He gained a privileged position in the Río de la Plata’s 19th-century art scene. His historic paintings are characterized by an inclination toward documentary, a reflection of the classic education he received in Italy. He never would abandon this academic style, except in a few allegorical paintings that maintain certain romantic accents. The Captive, c. 1880, painted in Florence, Italy, is part of a series of canvases of an allegorical nature dealing with Latin American themes. In these paintings, the characters and theme refer back to a dichotomy between civilization and barbarity. Barbarity referred not only to the Indians (an issue that was already resolved, anyway) but also to rebellious gauchos, civil wars and the disorder in the interior of the country. Civilization, in the allegory presented by the artist, is represented by a nude woman besieged by barbarity. The cautiva is a recurring theme in art from the Río de la Plata, an erotic myth that worked as a catalyst to arouse hatred toward indigenous peoples. In the center of the canvas there is a semi-nude white woman with her head raised looking skyward, ready to meet her fate with resignation. She is the cacique’s quarry and prize, and he observes her with intent curiosity. In the background the Indian village can be seen to the right, and a group of Indians on horseback, the raiders returning to the village, to the left. The painting is realistic, and it demonstrates Blanes’ great virtuosity, as much in the composition as in the drawing, and his excellent handling of light. All the works from this series are illuminated with a clear, diaphanous light that brings viewers to recall the desert. Although the artist has placed the focus of the composition on the female figure, the captive, he does not neglect the desert theme, which appears as the other great protagonist in this piece.


Jan Brueghel I

Bruselas, Bélgica, 1568 - Amberes, Bélgica, 1625

Also referred to as the Elder and Velvet Brueghel, he was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1568, the son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c.1525-1569) and brother of Pieter II. According to van Mander, he was Peeter Goetkind's (+1583) student. He was in Cologne on the way to Italy. In 1590 he was in Naples, having possibly arrived by sea; this city constitutes the first documented stage on a long voyage around the peninsula. From 1592 to 1594 he was in Rome, where he undoubtedly met artist Paul Bril (1554-1626), who lived in the city at the time. It was also there that he met Federico Borromeo in 1593, who would be his principal patron and protector in Italy. When Borromeo was named cardinal in 1595, Brueghel followed him to his headquarters in Milan. He returned to Antwerp in 1596, from where he continued to send works to Cardinal Borromeo through his agent, Ercole Bianchi. In 1597 he entered into the painter's guild, or Guild of St. Luke, of which he was deacon in 1602. We know that from 1599 on he was a member of the Brotherhood of Romanists, an institution that brought together painters who had been in Italy. He spent some time in Prague, in the court of Rudolf II, in 1604, and in 1606, in Nuremberg, from where he returned to his native city. There he worked for the archdukes Albrecht and Isabella; in 1609 he was named court painter, in spite of which he settled in Antwerp. In 1613 he was sent, along with Rubens, to carry out an official mission in the Northern Provinces (Holland). During this era, he was already well known and respected. He died in 1625, a victim of cholera, along with three of his children. His work consists of small landscapes, but he also painted mythological and religious themes or simple anecdotes, allegories (the senses, the elements) and flowers, where his work was outstanding for its meticulous execution and the great realism in its details. He produced paintings in collaboration with other artists, among whom figure Joos de Momper II, Hendrick van Balen, Sebastian Vrancx and Rubens. His son Jan II (1601-1678), called the Younger, was also a painter and his work was often confused with that of his father.

Flores en un vasoWan-Li (Flowers in aWan-Li Vase), c. 1609-11

Oil on wood panel, 46 x 33.9cm

Jan Brueghel I was a specialist in painting flowers. While he also painted landscapes and other motifs, in this type of still life he found one of his most important themes. He had a great ability to put these arrangements together, in addition to a meticulous craft, always based on working from reality. On a table on which an orange blossom branch is seen on the left and some small flowers and a ladybug on the right, a blue and white porcelain vase with a long neck and round base is set, containing an arrangement of flowers. The vase pertains to the Wan-Li period, and known by the name kendi, with its round base decorated with borders that make up segments where a branch appears in one and a locust in the next; the neck features a bird standing on the ground. A colorful bouquet is formed by the flowers, with six tulips of different forms and colors that stand out, a branch of jonquils and three large roses, along with foliage made up of small pink and white buds, forget-me-nots and white jasmines along with the leaves of all these flowers, especially the roses. A small white butterfly has landed on the jonquils. The colorful flowers stand out against a dark background. The artist defines the petals of every one of the flowers with careful brushstrokes, mixing a generous impasto of material with lighter, looser strokes of paint, or with the use of thin transparencies, layers of well-diluted paint superimposed upon one another that allow him to achieve translucent surfaces like those that exist in nature's reality, in the petals of some flowers or the leaves of certain plants. He is also concerned with representing the reflection of light, focused here on the Chinese vase, which has a large white area in the center of the base.


Pieter Brueghel II

Bruselas, Bélgica, ca. 1564/65 - Amberes, Bélgica, ca. 1637/38

Pieter Brueghel II, also called the Younger or Hell Brueghel, would have been born in 1564 or early 1565. He pertained to a family of painters whose members were quite important figures. He was the son of Pieter Brueghel I, the Elder (c.1525/30-1569), and brother of Jan Brueghel I, called the Velvet Brueghel, who was his student and also collaborated with Rubens. His son Pieter III was born in 1589 and was also a painter who entered the painter's guild in 1608. Not many details of his life are known. His grandmother, miniaturist Maria Verhulst, would have taught him to paint. In 1584 or 1585 he entered the guild as an independent maestro of Antwerp. According to the institution's records, we know that from 1588 to 1526 he had at least nine students, including animal and still life painter Frans Snyders (1579-1657) in 1608 and Gonzales Coques from 1626-1627. He married Elizabeth Goddeler on November 5, 1588. The precise date of his death is not known, it could have occurred in 1637-1638 when he was 73 or 74 years old, dates in which his name appears mentioned in the Dootschulden list (debts due to death) of the guild of St. Luke in Antwerp. He had considerable success with the compositions of his father, which he repeated on several occasions, but works portraying rural scenes that were of his own invention are also well known.

The Census of Bethlehem, n/d

Oil on wood panel, 117.5 x 167.5cm

The work El censo de Belén (The Census of Bethlehem) depicts the arrival of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem on the eve of the birth of baby Jesus, just as it is told in the Gospel according to St. Luke 2:1-5. As such, in this representation there is an interest in depicting Joseph and Mary reaching Bethlehem and approaching the inn, recognizable by the two crowns that hang on the façade, the site where the census is being carried out. The Sacred Family is located at the center of the composition and can be identified by the figure covered with a blue cloak who rides on a donkey, just as the Virgin traditionally appears in this type of representation, in addition to the masculine figure, Joseph, carrying tools -and who is, besides, very evidently carrying a saw here- walking ahead, guiding the nag and the ox who walks alongside. In a broad snow-covered landscape, a Flemish village is seen in the midst of great activity. To the left through the door of the inn, a group of people can be seen busy slaughtering pigs, an activity that goes on outside; there, a man and a woman are bleeding one of them. To one side, in a series of straw huts, a hatchet and other appropriate utensils can be seen. Two children observe the scene, one inflates a bladder. Toward the center of the composition there are several carts covered by the snow and a path along which several figures approach. Beyond this animated foreground, there are figures in the middle ground who entertain themselves playing with snowballs, in the center there is a woman with a broom, and to the right, a rundown shack with a small garden along one of its sides. A figure dressed in a cape, head covered with a large hat, broad and flat, takes care of the plants. Behind, in a doorway, a group wearing similar hats who could be identified as gypsies give the landscape an exotic accent. Finally, in the background to the left, a village is situated on the opposite shore of a frozen river that extends toward the horizon, flanked by trees. On the other side stands a large house, in front of which a large group is gathered around a big fire, and close by, to the right, a large tree that bears an insignia like a swan serves to call together another group. Further on, some men are building a house whose skeleton is clearly visible. The large house itself marks where a series of constructions begins, which culminate further to the right in a group of buildings among which a castle with its frozen moat can be discerned. Small figures are active in the different scenes that this snow-covered landscape depicts, where the steep roofs of the houses and the leafless trees with birds here or there on their branches stand out. All these groups complete the active environment of a Flemish village in winter. Playing in the snow or on the frozen ponds, rivers and canals constituted a motive for celebration for the inhabitants, who enjoyed the possibilities of different activities that the season had to offer.


Pierre Paul Calmettes

París, Francia 1874-?

While it is well known that Pierre Paul Calmettes was born in Paris in 1874, we do not know the date or place of his death. Similarly, little information is available about his life. He was the son of genre scene painter Fernand Calmettes, who was born in 1846 and exhibited in the Salon from 1878 onward. Pierre Paul was also a draughtsman, portraitist and genre scene painter. His father was who gave him his earliest education, and he then went on to study with Adolphe William Bouguereau (1861-1905). In Paris he participated in the Salon des Artistes Francais, where he would later become a member. His ties to writer Anatole France stem from a friendship between the writer and Pierre Paul's father, which then further developed through the works that Calmettes produced creating a portrait of France's Parisian home from 1907 on. According to Édouard Leduc, in Anatole France avant l'oubli (2006), the artist had been part of the entourage that accompanied the writer on his trip to visit Argentina in 1909.

Le Cabinet d'Anatole France (The Study of Anatole France), 1908

Oil on canvas, 73 x 59.5cm

This painting depicts the study or den where writer Anatole France worked. His real name was Anatole Francois Thibault, born in Paris in 1844, having died in Saint-Cyr-sur- Loire on October 12, 1924. This painting shows a typical corner of a work space from the late 19th century. The foreshortened view on one side is dominated by two main motifs. On one hand, there is a large elaborately worked wood mantelpiece with carved sidepieces that recall putti. These figures are the support for a ledge where artworks are displayed. A torso and a marble head stand out and apparently are fragments of classic sculptures. The other motif is comprised by the writing desk and chair. The desk is an elaborately carved piece of furniture, as is the accompanying chair. Papers, books and other elements essential to the writer's task are arranged on the desk, in addition to other smaller, ornate works depicted on the upper portion. The background wall is crowded with paintings of different sizes that cover it almost entirely. The paintings, in a manner similar to the small art objects and bibelots that appear on the chimney and desk, invade every surface as if in an attempt to overcome horror vacui; together they compose the complex, variegated sort of scene that was typical in certain circles during the late 19th century.


Marc Chagall

Vitebsk, Bielorrusia, 1887 - San Paul de Vence, Francia, 1985

Chagall was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, in 1887, into a Jewish family from the countryside. From 1907 to 1910 he studied at the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts in St. Petersburg and later, with Léon Bakst, who was a great costume and scenery designer for the Ballets Russes. Until 1914, he lived in Paris, where he met Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) and the artists of the Fauve group. With the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Russia, where he was named commissar of Fine Arts for Vitebsk and then director of the art academy (1919-1920). He resigned due to disputes with Kasimir Malevitch, following which he left for Moscow, where he designed scenery for the Karmerny state Jewish theater. His return to Paris in 1923 marked a new phase in his work: his artistic production already possessed a highly imaginative expression all its own, characterized by a poetic sensibility full of fantasy and color; it represented objects suspended in space and juxtaposed with one another that called upon evocations of rural Russian life. During the Second World War, Chagall lived in New York, and there, in 1946, the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective show of his work. In 1948 he returned and settled in Paris once again, leaving only for work and exhibitions. In 1951 he visited Israel and made his first sculptures. The decade was marked by a series of works in public spaces, like the stained glass works for the synagogue of the medical center at Hadassah University in Jerusalem (1960-1962); he painted the cupola of the Paris Opera and a stained glass piece for the United Nations building in New York in 1964; two large murals for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (1967); and stained glass works for the cathedral in Metz, France (1968). In 1977-1978, the Louvre museum in Paris held a large retrospective exhibition of his work (the first devoted to a living artist); in 1985 one was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Religious themes were of special interest to this artist. During his entire career he produced illustrations for literary works that were edited in lithography; they were elaborated by studio technicians until the artist learned the technique during the last years of his life. Religious themes, which were always a concern of his, gave rise to the Musée Biblique, in Cimiez, Nice, France. He died in Saint Paul de Vence on March 29, 1985.

Bouquet de printemps (Spring Bouquet), c. 1966-67 q

Oil on canvas, 100.5 x 73cm

This work has a large bouquet that covers the majority of the surface of the piece as its principal motif. Made up of yellow, blue, white and pink flowers with an abundance of greens, the bouquet has been arranged in a narrow-based transparent vase, standing out against a light blue and violet background. These background colors appear in some parts of the bouquet, which produces a curious relationship between figure and ground, in such a way that the latter apparently interpenetrates and tinges the arrangement with its tones. This interpenetration does not take place only in terms of color; careful attention allows one to discover that the background has been worked into with a series of forms that enrich the representation of the flowers itself. On the one hand, it can be discovered that the bouquet is placed in an exterior. To the right we can perceive an urban landscape that is immediately recognized as that of Paris: it is dominated by the Eiffel tower and one of the typical bridges that cross the Seine; a figure moves in the scene, and a bird flies overhead. Above, several characters fly in the sky; among them, to the right, a violinist, a clarinet player and others who appear to listen to their music can be noted; on the other side, a trapeze artist and a horsewoman who balances on horseback are seen, archetypical figures that Chagall introduces in his works to evoke celebrations and that furthermore have always been related to the theme of love. In addition to these characters, there is a couple of lovers kissing under the moon in the lower left section.


Demetre H. Chiparus

Dorohoi, Rumania, 1886 - París, Francia, 1947

Demetre H. Chiparus was born in Dorohoi, Rumania in 1886. In 1909 he traveled to Italy, where he studied with sculptor Raffaello Romanelli. In 1912 he moved to Paris to enroll in the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Antonin Mercie and Jean Boucher. He participated in the Salon des Artistes Francais in 1914 with two works, where he received a Mention of Honor. His first pieces were based on figures of children and religious themes. Following the First World War he began to work with imagery of dancers, which was what brought him fame. In many cases they exploit a taste for the exotic and they coincide with the discovery of Tutankamon's tomb (1922), while Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes were at their peak and Art Deco was flourishing. In addition, his works implied the introduction of new techniques in sculpture; especially in the case of the chryselephantines, where bronze and ivory were combined to produce sculptures that were extremely stylized, achieving an impressive impact. Also being studied during that era was the Athena Parthenos, made using this same technique and of which Salomón Reinach had carried out a reconstruction. The most important and novel works by Chiparus were produced between 1914 and 1933. During the last years of his life he made many sculptures of animals, participating in the Paris Salon with several of them in 1942 and 1943. Chiparus died in Paris in 1947.

Danseuse hindoue (Hindu Dancer), c. 1928

Ivory and polychrome bronze, silver and gold plated. Onyx and marble base, 56.5 x 69.4 x 13.3cm

In Danseuse Hindou (Hindu Dancer), the dancer's pose combines a stretching movement of the body with a contortion that lead to an effective impact. The figure's left arm folded upon her head and her right arm resting on the floor provide its balance. However, beyond the figure's pose, the treatment of the costume that almost completely covers her should be pointed out, where only her ivory hands, neck and face can be seen. She is dressed in a leotard and long skirt that is held in place by a wide, richly elaborated metal cummerbund that opens to either side, falling in front and behind in drapery that emphasize her pose. The skirt and leotard are textured in a pattern that evokes scales, a showcase for exceptional engraving work.


Demetre H. Chiparus

Dorohoi, Rumania, 1886 - París, Francia, 1947

Demetre H. Chiparus was born in Dorohoi, Rumania in 1886. In 1909 he traveled to Italy, where he studied with sculptor Raffaello Romanelli. In 1912 he moved to Paris to enroll in the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Antonin Mercie and Jean Boucher. He participated in the Salon des Artistes Francais in 1914 with two works, where he received a Mention of Honor. His first pieces were based on figures of children and religious themes. Following the First World War he began to work with imagery of dancers, which was what brought him fame. In many cases they exploit a taste for the exotic and they coincide with the discovery of Tutankamon's tomb (1922), while Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes were at their peak and Art Deco was flourishing. In addition, his works implied the introduction of new techniques in sculpture; especially in the case of the chryselephantines, where bronze and ivory were combined to produce sculptures that were extremely stylized, achieving an impressive impact. Also being studied during that era was the Athena Parthenos, made using this same technique and of which Salomón Reinach had carried out a reconstruction. The most important and novel works by Chiparus were produced between 1914 and 1933. During the last years of his life he made many sculptures of animals, participating in the Paris Salon with several of them in 1942 and 1943. Chiparus died in Paris in 1947.

Antinea, c. 1928

Ivory and polychrome bronze, silver and gold plated. Onyx and marble base, 67.3 x 30 x 13cm

In Antinea, Chiparus develops a figure that extends along the vertical axis of her own body; she rises up on bare feet and her hands are raised, holding a cape that falls to either side, delineating her figure. The softly polished ivory contrasts with the metal elaborated in arabesques, beading and brilliant borders on the clothing of this exotic dancer. The verticality of the figure is accentuated by the pyramid shaped base made of Portoro marble, onyx and colored marble. However what is most remarkable is the grace of the figures conceived by Chiparus, then imposed upon this process, on account of the way he resolves each pose, and in the great skill demonstrated in his engraving and finishing of these pieces, where he unites textures, colors and patinas.


Demetre H. Chiparus

Dorohoi, Rumania, 1886 - París, Francia, 1947

Demetre H. Chiparus was born in Dorohoi, Rumania in 1886. In 1909 he traveled to Italy, where he studied with sculptor Raffaello Romanelli. In 1912 he moved to Paris to enroll in the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Antonin Mercie and Jean Boucher. He participated in the Salon des Artistes Francais in 1914 with two works, where he received a Mention of Honor. His first pieces were based on figures of children and religious themes. Following the First World War he began to work with imagery of dancers, which was what brought him fame. In many cases they exploit a taste for the exotic and they coincide with the discovery of Tutankamon's tomb (1922), while Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes were at their peak and Art Deco was flourishing. In addition, his works implied the introduction of new techniques in sculpture; especially in the case of the chryselephantines, where bronze and ivory were combined to produce sculptures that were extremely stylized, achieving an impressive impact. Also being studied during that era was the Athena Parthenos, made using this same technique and of which Salomón Reinach had carried out a reconstruction. The most important and novel works by Chiparus were produced between 1914 and 1933. During the last years of his life he made many sculptures of animals, participating in the Paris Salon with several of them in 1942 and 1943. Chiparus died in Paris in 1947.

Pierrette, s.f.


Salvador Dalí

Figueras, Cataluña, España, 1904-1989

Dalí was born in Figueras, in the province of Gerona in Catalonia, Spain, on May 11, 1904, and his interest in art was manifest from an early age. In 1919 he painted in an impressionist manner, wrote about the great masters in the local magazine Studium and participated in a group show of young local artists. In 1922 he entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, from which he was expelled in 1926. In the students’ residence where he lived at the time he met Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca, José Bello and José Moreno Villa. He studied with Julio Moisés in his Free Academy; there he associated with Benjamín Palencia, Francisco Bores and Maruja Mallo. In 1925 he participated in the first Exposición de la Sociedad de Artistas Ibéricos (Madrid) and in December, his first solo show was held in Barcelona (Galerías Dalmau). In February, 1926, he participated in the Arte catalán moderno show in Madrid, then traveled to The Netherlands, and on his way back, in Paris, met Pablo Picasso. That same year, Federico García Lorca published “Oda a Salvador Dalí” in Revista de Occidente. His first Surrealist paintings and theater sets date from 1927, during his stay in Paris. In March of 1928, already in Catalonia, he signed the Manifest Groc or Manifest Antiartistic Català, along with Sebastià Gasch and Lluís Montanyá, which included a list of the artists and writers that he most admired: Picasso, Juan Gris, Joan Miró, Le Corbusier, Amédée Ozenfant, Giorgio De Chirico, Jean Cocteau, André Breton, etc. In Paris once again in early 1929, he was accepted by the group of Surrealist artists led by André Breton. He presents his own interpretation of Surrealism with the so-called “paranoid-critical method,” based on ideas derived from the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. His relationship with the surrealists would last until 1941, when he was expelled for political reasons more than for artistic ones. In 1929 he filmed Un chien andalou with Luis Buñuel. In the summer of that year he met Helena Diakonoff, Gala, with whom he initiated a relationship that would end only when she died in 1982. In 1930 he collaborated with Luis Buñuel on the script for La edad de oro and announced his position on Surrealism in conferences. During this decade he exhibited in France, Spain and the United States, where he participated in Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Dalí then became a public personality: Time magazine dedicated a cover to him on December 14, 1936. He lived in the United States from 1940 to 1948, where he painted, gave conferences and also designed jewelry and worked in Hollywood. In 1942 the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented a large retrospective show of his work. In 1948 he returned to Spain and settled in Port Lligat. Three years later, in 1951, impressed by the destruction of Hiroshima and the nuclear arms race, he published the Manifiesto místico, which inaugurated his “nuclear-mystic” phase that would last from 1949 until the 1970s. During this period he was influenced by movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art and Op Art. In 1982 King Juan Carlos I named him Marquis of Púbol. He died on January 23, 1989. He worked in painting, printmaking, sculpture, stage design, jewelry and furniture design, illustrated numerous literary works, was a writer and lecturer. He was of great importance on an international scale but left a significant influence in Spain, where the work of artists such as Joan Massanet (1899–1969), Ángel Planells (1901–1989) and Artur Carbonell (1906–1973) can attest to his legacy.

Le cercle viscéral du Cosmos

Dry point on chromolithography, 74 x 55cm

(The Visceral Circle of the Cosmos), 1974 Series:La conquéte du Cosmos I (The Conquest of the Cosmos I) In Le Cercle viscéral du Cosmos, the scene is comprised of a desolate landscape that culminates in a background with a far-off mountain chain, a typical atmosphere constructed by Dalí where he places his Surrealist constructions. The landscape is inhabited by a being that looks like an immense serpent, whose head has human features. Its extensive body coils in upon itself, describing a great spiral that is prolonged in its long tail; along its entire length it is held up by braces dispersed throughout the depth of the landscape that contribute to demarcate its magnitude. The head occupies the foreground of the work and its position brings the corporal movement to completion, while simultaneously closing it within a virtual circle. It inclines over its own body in order to bite it; at the point where its face meets the body there is an incision from which blood will most likely spring, as can already be seen in another part of the body, where a current flows in a curve that drips onto the landscape. In between this undulating snake form that develops in the landscape, a blue sky unfolds that Dalí elaborates as patches that accompany the forms of this monumental figure. The artist assembles a perspective through the use of lines that are organized in order to establish a clear deployment of space, as unsettling as it may turn out to be as an image. He uses dry point technique for the line, which as we mentioned, was the artist's favorite media. This sharp metal tool inscribes the plate in a rapid, nervous fashion and is manifest in long fluid lines that lend force and dynamism to the drawing, allowing the artist's personal mode of working to be seen. The line develops, covering the surface and generating the forms that put the scene together: many of them are only suggestions, as is the case in the tree that can be seen at the right of the composition, which is no more than a prolongation of the line that describes the forms we identified as mountains in the background. But this tree is an important element in the configuration of the landscape. It serves in order to complete the composition, giving it equilibrium on the right side, where its crown presents foliage made up of lines that accentuate the curves of the body of our character, in addition to being an important element in organizing the space.


Salvador Dalí

Figueras, Cataluña, España, 1904-1989

Dalí was born in Figueras, in the province of Gerona in Catalonia, Spain, on May 11, 1904, and his interest in art was manifest from an early age. In 1919 he painted in an impressionist manner, wrote about the great masters in the local magazine Studium and participated in a group show of young local artists. In 1922 he entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, from which he was expelled in 1926. In the students’ residence where he lived at the time he met Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca, José Bello and José Moreno Villa. He studied with Julio Moisés in his Free Academy; there he associated with Benjamín Palencia, Francisco Bores and Maruja Mallo. In 1925 he participated in the first Exposición de la Sociedad de Artistas Ibéricos (Madrid) and in December, his first solo show was held in Barcelona (Galerías Dalmau). In February, 1926, he participated in the Arte catalán moderno show in Madrid, then traveled to The Netherlands, and on his way back, in Paris, met Pablo Picasso. That same year, Federico García Lorca published “Oda a Salvador Dalí” in Revista de Occidente. His first Surrealist paintings and theater sets date from 1927, during his stay in Paris. In March of 1928, already in Catalonia, he signed the Manifest Groc or Manifest Antiartistic Català, along with Sebastià Gasch and Lluís Montanyá, which included a list of the artists and writers that he most admired: Picasso, Juan Gris, Joan Miró, Le Corbusier, Amédée Ozenfant, Giorgio De Chirico, Jean Cocteau, André Breton, etc. In Paris once again in early 1929, he was accepted by the group of Surrealist artists led by André Breton. He presents his own interpretation of Surrealism with the so-called “paranoid-critical method,” based on ideas derived from the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. His relationship with the surrealists would last until 1941, when he was expelled for political reasons more than for artistic ones. In 1929 he filmed Un chien andalou with Luis Buñuel. In the summer of that year he met Helena Diakonoff, Gala, with whom he initiated a relationship that would end only when she died in 1982. In 1930 he collaborated with Luis Buñuel on the script for La edad de oro and announced his position on Surrealism in conferences. During this decade he exhibited in France, Spain and the United States, where he participated in Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Dalí then became a public personality: Time magazine dedicated a cover to him on December 14, 1936. He lived in the United States from 1940 to 1948, where he painted, gave conferences and also designed jewelry and worked in Hollywood. In 1942 the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented a large retrospective show of his work. In 1948 he returned to Spain and settled in Port Lligat. Three years later, in 1951, impressed by the destruction of Hiroshima and the nuclear arms race, he published the Manifiesto místico, which inaugurated his “nuclear-mystic” phase that would last from 1949 until the 1970s. During this period he was influenced by movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art and Op Art. In 1982 King Juan Carlos I named him Marquis of Púbol. He died on January 23, 1989. He worked in painting, printmaking, sculpture, stage design, jewelry and furniture design, illustrated numerous literary works, was a writer and lecturer. He was of great importance on an international scale but left a significant influence in Spain, where the work of artists such as Joan Massanet (1899–1969), Ángel Planells (1901–1989) and Artur Carbonell (1906–1973) can attest to his legacy.

Le caducée de Mars nourri par la boule du feu de Jupiter

Dry point on chromolithography, 74 x 55cm

(The Caduceus of Mars Nourished by the Ball of Fire of Jupiter), 1974 Series:La conquéte du Cosmos II (The Conquest of the Cosmos II) This work pertains to La Conquéte du Cosmos II, the second series that expands upon the mythology that Dalí had established in the first. It is comprised of six prints and here inventions that further enrich the mythological universe imagined by the artist also appear. The production is similar to our piece Le Cercle viscéral du Cosmos. In this case, the motif is the serpents of Mars' staff, who appear submitted to a revitalizing procedure that emanates from Jupiter itself. The scene unfolds in an untamed landscape with a horizon line that cuts the composition through the middle. In the distance, there are low hills complemented by large rocks that emerge like isolated quarry stones to the left. A strange light that comes from the left illuminates the scene and generates long shadows that extend from the rocks. The serpents have what appear to be bird's heads, with large beaks, one has a crest that we imagine to be of feathers or hair. There are scales on one of the bodies, it has a foot or claw and both are finished off with fish tails. In this scene, they scream, submitted to the force of the Jupiter's fire which appears like a great ball between the bird heads at the center of the composition. Jupiter's rays are a powerful attribute of the god that can serve to either destroy or nourish, as happens in this interpretation by the artist. The nutritive function provokes a fusion between the two main characters, who are united in the wound from which blood flows. In the solitary space, in the distance between the bodies that intersect, the figure of a horseman can be seen, dressed in armor and wielding a long lance. It is a strange image that comes to animate this representation, which generates a long shadow that completes those cast by the rocks at the same time.


Roberto Matta Echaurren

Santiago, Chile, 1912- Civitavecchia, Italia, 2002

Roberto Antonio Sebastián Matta Echaurren was an important figure who brought renovation to the Surrealist movement, and whose ideas also influenced abstract expressionist trends during the 1940s. He was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1912. He graduated as an architect from the Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad Católica de Chile in 1931. In 1933 he left for Paris, where he worked as a draughtsman in Le Corbusier’s studio for two years. He visited many European cities and, while in London, met Walter Gropius and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy. In 1937 he returned to Paris. While there, he worked on the realization of the Spanish pavilion for the Universal Exposition; he met René Magritte, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró, and by way of Federico García Lorca and Salvador Dalí, he came to know André Breton. In 1938 he met Marcel Duchamp, with whom he maintained a lasting friendship, and he joined the Surrealist group and participated in the International Surrealist Exposition. It was at this time that he produced his Morfologías psicológicas (Psychological Morphologies). In 1939, due to the Second World War, he traveled to New York along with Duchamp and Yves Tanguy. They had an enormous impact on young painters there. In 1940 his first exhibition in that city was held. In 1946 he returned to Paris, where he participated in the Surrealist Exposition at the Maeght gallery; the following year, he had a solo show at the same venue. In 1948 he settled in Europe once again. That year he was expelled from the Surrealist group, into which he would be admitted once again 11 years later. In 1950 he lived in Rome and Poland. Matta participated in exhibitions the world over, having become an internationally recognized artist. During this period he dealt with political problems tied to the social conditions in poor countries. In 1956 he painted the mural titled Las dudas de tres mundos (The Doubts of Three Worlds) for UNESCO. In 1968 he was in Cuba, where he presided over the Congreso Cultural de La Habana, and there he presented the document titled La guerra interior (The Inner War). Chilean president Salvador Allende invited him to return to his home country in 1970, where he produced murals in collaboration with other artists. He would later fight against the military coup in his country. In 1990 he was awarded the Premio Nacional de Arte de Chile and an important retrospective show of his work was organized at the Museo de Bellas Artes. In 1992 he received the Premio Príncipe de Asturias in Madrid. He exhibited in Buenos Aires in 1998. He died in Civitavecchia, Italy, on November 23, 2002.

L'Eau o El agua (L'Eau orWater), 1939

Oil on canvas, 72 x 90.5cm

In L'Eau, a translucent plane of grays and emerald seems to have been ruptured, leaving large hollows that allow one to see through to an inner world. There Shapeless forms appear, made of plasma or some gelatinous material that has a primordial appearance, as if gestating a life, a universe or a world. This foreground plane seems to provide a kind of structure that supports deep cavities where transparencies made of vividly colored liquids, in yellow, red, light blue and violet hues coexist, moving in an eternal process of regeneration. The green in the upper part of the painting and the yellow in the lower part suggest an energy and motion that is transmitted to the rest of the composition. Applied to a larger surface area, they seem to dominate this universe where other colors attempt to gain greater presence. From a technical point of view, L'Eau and the works produced during this period are the result of a series of explorations undertaken by the artist based on an interest in textures and, above all, in the issues involved in applying layers of paint. These works focus on resolving problems related to surface appearance, as is revealed here in certain passages where the oil paint is used in a very dilute form in order to achieve different effects. In some cases, as can be seen here, he is able to handle the paint in such a way that it takes on the characteristics of watercolor or soft transparencies, with different layers of color superimposed on one another (glazes). He also uses the technique of taking away paint with a solvent-laden sponge, thus creating special effects, and experiments with the fumage (smoking) technique, that consists of applying the heat of a candle to a surface painted on paper or canvas in order to achieve a smoky effect.


Pedro Figari

Montevideo, Uruguay, 1861-1938

Pedro Figari was born to Italian parents on June 29, 1861 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He received a degree in Law from the Universidad de la República at 25 years of age. In 1886, recently married to María de Castro Caravia, he embarked upon a trip to Europe that would extend for nine years. In Paris he visited museums and came into contact with the impressionist movement. In Venice he attended an academic studio. Back in Montevideo, in 1893 he founded the El Deber newspaper, and in 1899 he published Defensa del alférez Enrique Almeida (The Defense of 2nd Lieutenant Enrique Almeida), a famous case of a man accused of a murder he did not commit. In 1896 he was Rocha's delegate, and that of Minas in 1899. In 1912 he published Arte, estética, ideal (Art, Aesthetics, Ideal), a book in which he expressed his concerns regarding a regional art identity. In 1915 he was named director of the Escuela de Artes y Oficios in Montevideo, where he made reforms in art education, proposing an antiacademic system comprised of multiple art disciplines; in this way he introduced ceramics, wickerwork and stained glass to the program, exploring and including national flora and fauna as motifs, in addition to pre-Hispanic iconography. In 1921, at 60 years of age, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to painting. He moved to Buenos Aires and set up a studio on Charcas Street. He untiringly painted over two thousand works on cardboard on native motifs: 19th-century patios, ladies with Spanish ornamental combs, parties, weddings and funerals, historical folklore images of colonial life, carriages, ranches and typical people from the Río de la Plata area, such as his famous black figures dancing to candombe rhythms. His paintings were shown at the Míller gallery in 1922. In Paris, a very successful show of his works was organized by the Druet gallery in 1923, held while he was residing in Argentina's capital city. He was a co-founder of the Asociación Amigos del Arte in Buenos Aires (1924) and held his second exhibition at the Witcomb gallery, which was very well received by the press, particularly by the Martín Fierro news group. In 1925 he settled in Paris, where he worked in his studio on the Place du Panthéon. From that point on, he exhibited his works in Brussels, London, Paris and Buenos Aires. In October, 1927, he was appointed delegate minister in London, Great Britain; he moved to that city to assume the post one year later. In 1930 he was awarded the Gran Premio de Pintura at the Salón del Centenario (Montevideo) and the Medalla de Oro at the Exposición Iberoamericana de Sevilla. Among his written works, El arquitecto (The Architect, 1928) and Historia Kiria (The Kiria Story, 1930) deserve mention. In 1933 he was designated artistic advisor for the Ministerio de Instrucción Pública and he returned to Montevideo. His last exhibitions were held at the Sociedad Amigos de Arte in Buenos Aires. He died in Montevideo on July 24, 1938.

In the Patio (Candies and Bass Strings), n/d

Oil on cardboard, 60 x 80 cm

Figari luxuriates in depicting the classic scene of a soiree on a colonial patio whose floor has large black and white tiles in a checkerboard pattern. Six ladies adorned with Spanish ornamental combs carry out different tasks; two water flowers in large planters, one stirs a pot on a brazier while she fans herself, accompanied by a black cat at her feet, while a dog barks at her and two servants attentively await her orders. Three of the ladies look on with interest. The only masculine presence corresponds to a guitarist who strums the strings of his instrument seated on the doorstep of the entrance to the patio. Figari handles the wall of the house with special attention; two flowering vines approach the molding of the window and doorway; the door features a segmental arch and the frame combines curves and straight lines. Above it, there is a niche and the figure of a Virgin; the window is in the same architectural style with grillwork bowed at the base. The lit lantern and full moon visible in the sky tell us that the scene takes place during the last hour of daylight.


Pedro Figari

Montevideo, Uruguay, 1861-1938

Pedro Figari was born to Italian parents on June 29, 1861 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He received a degree in Law from the Universidad de la República at 25 years of age. In 1886, recently married to María de Castro Caravia, he embarked upon a trip to Europe that would extend for nine years. In Paris he visited museums and came into contact with the impressionist movement. In Venice he attended an academic studio. Back in Montevideo, in 1893 he founded the El Deber newspaper, and in 1899 he published Defensa del alférez Enrique Almeida (The Defense of 2nd Lieutenant Enrique Almeida), a famous case of a man accused of a murder he did not commit. In 1896 he was Rocha's delegate, and that of Minas in 1899. In 1912 he published Arte, estética, ideal (Art, Aesthetics, Ideal), a book in which he expressed his concerns regarding a regional art identity. In 1915 he was named director of the Escuela de Artes y Oficios in Montevideo, where he made reforms in art education, proposing an antiacademic system comprised of multiple art disciplines; in this way he introduced ceramics, wickerwork and stained glass to the program, exploring and including national flora and fauna as motifs, in addition to pre-Hispanic iconography. In 1921, at 60 years of age, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to painting. He moved to Buenos Aires and set up a studio on Charcas Street. He untiringly painted over two thousand works on cardboard on native motifs: 19th-century patios, ladies with Spanish ornamental combs, parties, weddings and funerals, historical folklore images of colonial life, carriages, ranches and typical people from the Río de la Plata area, such as his famous black figures dancing to candombe rhythms. His paintings were shown at the Míller gallery in 1922. In Paris, a very successful show of his works was organized by the Druet gallery in 1923, held while he was residing in Argentina's capital city. He was a co-founder of the Asociación Amigos del Arte in Buenos Aires (1924) and held his second exhibition at the Witcomb gallery, which was very well received by the press, particularly by the Martín Fierro news group. In 1925 he settled in Paris, where he worked in his studio on the Place du Panthéon. From that point on, he exhibited his works in Brussels, London, Paris and Buenos Aires. In October, 1927, he was appointed delegate minister in London, Great Britain; he moved to that city to assume the post one year later. In 1930 he was awarded the Gran Premio de Pintura at the Salón del Centenario (Montevideo) and the Medalla de Oro at the Exposición Iberoamericana de Sevilla. Among his written works, El arquitecto (The Architect, 1928) and Historia Kiria (The Kiria Story, 1930) deserve mention. In 1933 he was designated artistic advisor for the Ministerio de Instrucción Pública and he returned to Montevideo. His last exhibitions were held at the Sociedad Amigos de Arte in Buenos Aires. He died in Montevideo on July 24, 1938.

Nocturne, c. 1917–1921

Oil on cardboard, 24 x 38 cm

Figari depicts a certain niche of the countryside in this piece. A simple, cube-shaped house with a door and one window is reflected in a small lake. The branches of a few weeping willows fall over the water and the house. A large dark area on the left of this scene seems to intensify the somber atmosphere. The work is painted in a loose style with many daubs of color, a technique that clearly reveals the influence of the painter Pierre Bonnard.


Pedro Figari

Montevideo, Uruguay, 1861-1938

Pedro Figari was born to Italian parents on June 29, 1861 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He received a degree in Law from the Universidad de la República at 25 years of age. In 1886, recently married to María de Castro Caravia, he embarked upon a trip to Europe that would extend for nine years. In Paris he visited museums and came into contact with the impressionist movement. In Venice he attended an academic studio. Back in Montevideo, in 1893 he founded the El Deber newspaper, and in 1899 he published Defensa del alférez Enrique Almeida (The Defense of 2nd Lieutenant Enrique Almeida), a famous case of a man accused of a murder he did not commit. In 1896 he was Rocha's delegate, and that of Minas in 1899. In 1912 he published Arte, estética, ideal (Art, Aesthetics, Ideal), a book in which he expressed his concerns regarding a regional art identity. In 1915 he was named director of the Escuela de Artes y Oficios in Montevideo, where he made reforms in art education, proposing an antiacademic system comprised of multiple art disciplines; in this way he introduced ceramics, wickerwork and stained glass to the program, exploring and including national flora and fauna as motifs, in addition to pre-Hispanic iconography. In 1921, at 60 years of age, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to painting. He moved to Buenos Aires and set up a studio on Charcas Street. He untiringly painted over two thousand works on cardboard on native motifs: 19th-century patios, ladies with Spanish ornamental combs, parties, weddings and funerals, historical folklore images of colonial life, carriages, ranches and typical people from the Río de la Plata area, such as his famous black figures dancing to candombe rhythms. His paintings were shown at the Míller gallery in 1922. In Paris, a very successful show of his works was organized by the Druet gallery in 1923, held while he was residing in Argentina's capital city. He was a co-founder of the Asociación Amigos del Arte in Buenos Aires (1924) and held his second exhibition at the Witcomb gallery, which was very well received by the press, particularly by the Martín Fierro news group. In 1925 he settled in Paris, where he worked in his studio on the Place du Panthéon. From that point on, he exhibited his works in Brussels, London, Paris and Buenos Aires. In October, 1927, he was appointed delegate minister in London, Great Britain; he moved to that city to assume the post one year later. In 1930 he was awarded the Gran Premio de Pintura at the Salón del Centenario (Montevideo) and the Medalla de Oro at the Exposición Iberoamericana de Sevilla. Among his written works, El arquitecto (The Architect, 1928) and Historia Kiria (The Kiria Story, 1930) deserve mention. In 1933 he was designated artistic advisor for the Ministerio de Instrucción Pública and he returned to Montevideo. His last exhibitions were held at the Sociedad Amigos de Arte in Buenos Aires. He died in Montevideo on July 24, 1938.

Pericón at the Estate, n. d.

Oil on cardboard, 70 x 100 cm

Musicologist Carlos Vega states: “The Pericón is a typical dance in the flat area of the pampa. It is a very elegant dance, and was called the ‘dance of four’ on account of the fact that this was the minimum number of couples needed and also because the choreography of this primitive dance was comprised by only four figures, named, in order: question or mirror, hindmost or joyful, chain and sky.” In this painting on cardboard by Figari, there are eight couples dancing, that is, there are twice as many as needed for this colonial dance. The gauchos are rigorously attired in bombacha (baggy trousers), vincha (headband) and facón (long knife); the women wear long dresses, with their hair braided and a kerchief around the neck. Two guitar players are seated on the right-hand side of the scene and a few figures look on at the dance. The diversion takes place close to the estate’s main entrance gate. A tree covers the full moon and the sky takes up more than half of the composition. The painting portrays a calm, almost timeless atmosphere, achieved with the same expertise that Figari imparts to all his works.


Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Tournus, Francia, 1725 - París, Francia, 1805

Greuze was born in Tournus on August 21, 1725. In Lyon he was a student of Grandon’s, a portraitist. In 1755 he arrived in Paris in order to enroll in the Academy. Painter Louis de Silvestre and sculptor Pigalle supported his works, and his first canvases attracted the attention of Ange-Laurent de La Live de Jully, an important collector. That same year he gained fame with Le père de famille expliquant la Bible à ses enfants (Father Explaining the Bible to his Children), which he presented at the Salon. It was a genre painting that exalted the simple virtues of the poor and emphasized the moral issue of family education, which would mark all of his production. The public received his subsequent works, such as L’Accordée de village (The Village Bride, 1761, Louvre Museum, Paris) and La Piété filiale, ou le paralytique secouru par ses enfants (Paralyzed Man Cared for by His Children, 1763, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), with enthusiasm, and they also garnered applause on the part of writer Denis Diderot. Following his failed attempt to be accepted by the Academy as a history painter, the highest category possible for an artist, he negated participating in official activities. However, he did present his works at private exhibitions with great success during the following years, when his style inclined toward compositions that incursion into moral questions. In these works, Greuze was inspired in formal terms by Poussin; he eliminated details and accentuated the description of emotions by means of a marked body language in the faces and hands. In 1770 he was famous on account of countless prints that had been made based on his work. But at that same time and during the decades that followed, when neoclassic ideas began to emerge, he painted works known as “expression studies.” They are figures of young innocent looking women, charged with sentimentalism, presented partially clothed. He gave these canvases titles such as Sadness or Innocence. Even though these works generated widespread repercussions and were copied on a large scale, the ideas of the Revolution moved the public in the direction of other interests, and as a result Greuze lapsed into poverty and oblivion. He received occasional commissions from Napoleon and his circle. His death, which occurred in Paris in 1805, passed unnoticed.

Woman in Hunting Outfit, n/d

Oil on canvas, 44 x 36cm

The two paintings of young women that pertain to this collection clearly compose a pendant (pair): both are related in terms of the framing of the figure and its pictorial handling in addition to the composition, which orients them one toward the right and the other toward the left, establishing a sort of conversation between them. They are attributed to Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and the two could well be an example of historicized portraits; in other words, those where the person portrayed takes on the role of a mythological or historical figure. In some cases, this formula has been used to represent two people who are surely related- brothers, mother and child, etc. -who adopt the principal characteristics of the figure of reference, especially when dealing with instances where they are qualities common to both. In our case, the pendant presents two women dressed in rural attire that leads us to assume that we are dealing with two shepherdesses of Arcadia, a theme that was typically evoked in Europe during the 18th century. The anatomy of the two figures has been achieved on the basis of a construction that accentuates the volume of the forms, something that can be seen in other drawings by the artist. As is the case with other figures by Greuze, the women in our works are distinguished by the handling of color in the flesh and clothing, which is harmonized in tones that range from pink to red, contrasting with yellows, ochres and whites that stand out against the dark backgrounds. The flesh is achieved using a pictorial technique that produces a smooth surface and transparency that are enriched with the blushing tones that cover the cheeks, the pink of the lips and the soft shadows with which the busts are modeled. For their part, the treatment of the fabrics is handled in such a way to express large folds that are highlighted with shiny reflections like those of satin.


Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Tournus, Francia, 1725 - París, Francia, 1805

Greuze was born in Tournus on August 21, 1725. In Lyon he was a student of Grandon’s, a portraitist. In 1755 he arrived in Paris in order to enroll in the Academy. Painter Louis de Silvestre and sculptor Pigalle supported his works, and his first canvases attracted the attention of Ange-Laurent de La Live de Jully, an important collector. That same year he gained fame with Le père de famille expliquant la Bible à ses enfants (Father Explaining the Bible to his Children), which he presented at the Salon. It was a genre painting that exalted the simple virtues of the poor and emphasized the moral issue of family education, which would mark all of his production. The public received his subsequent works, such as L’Accordée de village (The Village Bride, 1761, Louvre Museum, Paris) and La Piété filiale, ou le paralytique secouru par ses enfants (Paralyzed Man Cared for by His Children, 1763, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), with enthusiasm, and they also garnered applause on the part of writer Denis Diderot. Following his failed attempt to be accepted by the Academy as a history painter, the highest category possible for an artist, he negated participating in official activities. However, he did present his works at private exhibitions with great success during the following years, when his style inclined toward compositions that incursion into moral questions. In these works, Greuze was inspired in formal terms by Poussin; he eliminated details and accentuated the description of emotions by means of a marked body language in the faces and hands. In 1770 he was famous on account of countless prints that had been made based on his work. But at that same time and during the decades that followed, when neoclassic ideas began to emerge, he painted works known as “expression studies.” They are figures of young innocent looking women, charged with sentimentalism, presented partially clothed. He gave these canvases titles such as Sadness or Innocence. Even though these works generated widespread repercussions and were copied on a large scale, the ideas of the Revolution moved the public in the direction of other interests, and as a result Greuze lapsed into poverty and oblivion. He received occasional commissions from Napoleon and his circle. His death, which occurred in Paris in 1805, passed unnoticed.

Woman with Red Ribbon, n/d

Oil on canvas, 44 x 36cm

The two paintings of young women that pertain to this collection clearly compose a pendant (pair): both are related in terms of the framing of the figure and its pictorial handling in addition to the composition, which orients them one toward the right and the other toward the left, establishing a sort of conversation between them. They are attributed to Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and the two could well be an example of historicized portraits; in other words, those where the person portrayed takes on the role of a mythological or historical figure. In some cases, this formula has been used to represent two people who are surely related- brothers, mother and child, etc. -who adopt the principal characteristics of the figure of reference, especially when dealing with instances where they are qualities common to both. In our case, the pendant presents two women dressed in rural attire that leads us to assume that we are dealing with two shepherdesses of Arcadia, a theme that was typically evoked in Europe during the 18th century. The anatomy of the two figures has been achieved on the basis of a construction that accentuates the volume of the forms, something that can be seen in other drawings by the artist. As is the case with other figures by Greuze, the women in our works are distinguished by the handling of color in the flesh and clothing, which is harmonized in tones that range from pink to red, contrasting with yellows, ochres and whites that stand out against the dark backgrounds. The flesh is achieved using a pictorial technique that produces a smooth surface and transparency that are enriched with the blushing tones that cover the cheeks, the pink of the lips and the soft shadows with which the busts are modeled. For their part, the treatment of the fabrics is handled in such a way to express large folds that are highlighted with shiny reflections like those of satin.


Gustav Klimt

Baumgarten, Austria, 1862 - Viena, Austria, 1918

Klimt was born in Baumgarten, close to Vienna, on July 14, 1862, the son of Ernst, an engraver who had arrived from Bohemia. He studied at the School of Applied Art linked to the Royal and Imperial Austrian Museum for Art and Industry in Vienna (1876-1883). Along with his brother Ernst and Franz Martsch, he organized the Artists Company that produced, among other things, the decoration for the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum) in Vienna in 1891. In 1894, Klimt received the commission for the Faculty Paintings from the University of Vienna (which after several inconveniences, he finished in 1907). In 1897, faced with the dissolution of the Co-Operative Society of Vienna Artists, he founded the Viennese Secession, along with Joseph Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoffman. For the XIV exhibition held by the institution, he made the Beethoven frieze (1902), and for the XVIII edition (1903), he participated with 80 works. That year he renounced from the Secession and traveled to Ravenna and Florence. In 1906, the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts named him as an honorary member; in 1907 he exhibited in Vienna and Berlin. In 1908, the State Gallery bought his work The Kiss and he obtained the Gold Medal for Three Ages of Woman. In 1910 he participated in the Venice Biennial, and the following year won the first prize at the International Exposition in Rome. In 1917, the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna distinguished him as an honorary member. He died on February 6, 1918. Klimt´s work was greatly valued after his death. Although he received some prizes, the role he played in the Austrian and international art scene has only been recognized as recently as the second half of the 20th century; only then did his early style begin to be appreciated, influenced by Edward Burne-Jones, Lawrence Alma Tadema and Japanese art, making a better understanding of the changes his work underwent following a trip to Italy in 1903 possible. As regards his production, the role he played in the world of applied arts has been appreciated, and also that in relation to artists such as Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and Oscar Kokoschka (1886-1980).

Female Figure, n/d

Pencil on paper, 56.5 x 37cm

Our Figura femenina (Female Figure) is one of the typical drawings that Klimt would make when he was beginning to work on a portrait, a theme that occupied large part of his oeuvre. Our drawing presents a seated figure, her torso erect and her head slightly turned to the right, looking directly at the viewer. Her hands are joined on her lap and she holds something in her right hand, perhaps a fan or a small purse. It is interesting to observe that this preparatory drawing presents us with a conclusive vision of the pose and the attitude of the person portrayed, in addition to details of her clothes, and even -to judge by the graphic designs that appear on the seat- invites us to suppose that this is a richly embroidered surface, and it becomes a colorful tapestry. Returning to the figure, the model's light eyes are notable, as is the gesture of her mouth. Her long neck is highlighted in the pose chosen for this portrait, and the artist emphasizes it with a low neckline that appears to have been corrected: a soft line of a higher neckline denounces the pentimento that is destined to generate the basis for the construction of the neck and head. Other changes can be seen in the arms; the right is presented without difficulties and from the first line drawn is the definitive version, while for the left, various lines that pass over repeatedly demonstrate a degree of uncertainty. A similar process takes place with the object that the woman holds in her right hand, whose definition has not yet been achieved. But in spite of these particularities indicated, the drawing appears to be a portrait whose pose was already decided. We believe that this type of solution has surely been the result of careful observation on the part of the artist, possibly realized during a prolonged period of time, allowing him to carry out a finished image.


Stephen Robert Koekkoek

Londres, Inglaterra, 1887 - Chile, 1934

Koekkoek was born in London on October 15, 1887, the son of Hermanus Koekkoek (1836-1909), member of a family of Dutch painters who had emigrated to England in 1869. No details regarding Stephen's education are known, but it is assumed that he had some artistic education. In 1910, following his father's death, he moved to Lima, Peru, and later, in 1913, to Valparaiso, Chile, possibly interested in activities related to mining. However, in 1915 he was already in Mendoza, Argentina, where he exhibited paintings in April that he had surely begun to produce at some earlier point that is unknown to us. There, he was married and his son, Bernando Winkfield, was born. In 1916 he exhibited in Buenos Aires, and it would be the beginning of a series of shows of his work held not only in Argentina's capital city, but also in other cities in the country's interior (Bahía Blanca, Córdoba, San Miguel de Tucumán, Salta, Mendoza, Rosario, Chivilcoy, Concordia, Gualeguay, Pergamino, Azul, Paraná, Santa Fe, Mercedes and La Plata). He also had shows in Uruguay (Montevideo), Chile (Santiago, Concepción and Chillón), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) and Peru (Lima). A bohemian attitude of freedom and detachment characterized his life, making him a curious character that could be seen as the artist who is misunderstood by society. In March of 1926, after an incident with the police, he was admitted into a psychiatric hospital for three months. It was then that a process that would eventually lead to his death began. The illness did not hamper his artistic activity, on the contrary, it intensified, on account of his economic needs. The artist's only involvement in an official event was in 1930, when he participated in the XII Salón de Rosario, city to which he then moved in 1933. He died in Chile, on December 20th, at 47 years of age. Stephen Koekkoek represents a true phenomenon in the art world, because of both his vast production and the public reaction to his work in the different places where he exhibited. His paintings typically feature heavy impasto. In this way he achieves different textures, organized by way of a reduced palette that is enriched by touches of color. This allows him to translate the effects of light and shadow, mist, highlights and contrasts. While his primary subject matter was landscape, he also painted still lives and portraits.

Boats, n/d

Oil on canvas, 75 x 85cm

The number of canvases painted by Stephen Koekkoek has been estimated at around 10 thousand; he lived in Argentina during the majority of his productive life. Landscape was his preferred genre, and he practiced all of its diverse variations. In Barcas (Boats), the lower portion of the canvas occupied by the water corresponds to the great majority of the work. The horizon and sky have been reduced to a minimal expression, a slim strip that would seem to be just one part of a work that has been split into fragments. The ample waves produced by one of the boats on a large expanse of water appear to be the theme of the painting. The waves cover more than half of the surface and their movement envelops the boat, in which several figures occupy themselves with activities that we know nothing and can suppose little about. Behind this boat there is a group of others that also move gently in response to the waves. The strip of land is even more suggestive; different forms are submerged in the mist, where certain highlights can be discerned. This small section contrasts with the painting's middle plane, where the boats appear to be in movement. Koekkoek has created a dense atmosphere along the coast that is complemented by the water in the extensive foreground, which appears to be similarly dense and thick due to the color and drawing in the waves. The artist thus creates a special mood in this port landscape, where he has not forgotten to employ a play of highlights and reflections, such as the daub of yellow that is seen above and to the right, as well as others that emerge from the primary waves.


Joaquim de Miró i Argenter

Sitges, Cataluña, España, 1849-1914

Miró was born in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain, on February 3, 1849. We have very little information about this artist. He was Josep de Miró i Argenter’s brother, a hero in Cuba’s independence movement. It is assumed that he had no formal artistic training. In 1877 he assisted Joan Soler i Casanovas in decorating the Casino Prado in his native city. His work was dedicated to portraying local urban life, particularly that produced between 1880 and 1910, where he chose to portray street scenes, the interiors of houses’ patios or beaches. He also painted views of cities from Northern Africa, highlighting their colorful, picturesque nature. His interest in light led him to join the group of artists working in Sitges who were known as Luminists. He was maestro to Agustín Ferrer and of his nephew, Joachim Sunyer i de Miró, the most outstanding representative of Catalonia’s Noucentisme movement. His work figured in the Exposición de Bellas Artes de Barcelona in 1888, 1894 and 1896. He died on February 18, 1914.

Pescadores (Fishermen), n/d

Oil on wood panel, 23 x 28.5cm

The composition is dominated by the sail, filled by the breeze, describing a grand diagonal that crosses almost the entire canvas, cutting into the deep blue sky with its whiteness. The sky occupies the top two thirds of the painted surface. It takes a leading role, competing with the lower third, which is dedicated to the beach and the sea, culminating in the horizon. There the activity motivated by the arriving boat is focused, enriched by one figure in the foreground to the lower left who approaches the main group. This figure, along with the ocean waves, a boat that stands out on the horizon and some small clouds, are elements that introduce dynamic notes into the composition. The aforementioned solitary figure serves as an outstanding point that completes the spindle form delineated by the sail, provoking a clear contrast with the work's straight lines, especially that marked by the horizon. In this study the artist has employed a pictorial technique with rough brushstrokes loaded with material that leave their mark, serving to further emphasize the work's forms. This can be particularly noted in the case of the sea, where the movement of the waves is suggested, or in the pasture seen on the coast's terrain. In the sky, these brushstrokes are poised above the sail, marking a fundamental presence in the landscape. Another outstanding characteristic of this piece is the light. Miró sets out to make its presence an important element in the work, since it serves to highlight forms, but above all in order to create a fresh, colorful atmosphere.


Auguste Rodin

París, Francia, 1840 - Meudon, Francia, 1917

Rodin was born on November 12, 1840 in Paris, France. His vocation for drawing showed itself while he was still a child. At 14 years of age he was enrolled in the École Impériale de Dessin et de Mathématiques, called La Petite École, where he studied under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran. He also studied drawing at the École de la Manufacture des Gobelins, and history and literature at the Collège de France. In 1857 he attempted to enter the École des Beaux-Arts, but in vain. He worked as an assistant to sculptors and marble cutters dedicated to producing ornaments; among others, for Constant Simon, who he recognized as his maestro in modeling. In 1863 he set up his first studio and began his L’Homme au nez cassé (Man with a Broken Nose), that he presented at the Salon and was rejected. That year he met Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875). In 1864 he studied with Antoine-Louis Barye (1795–1875) at the Muséum d’Histoire naturelle; he entered the Sèvres porcelain studio, run by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887), where he worked for six years. During this time he began a relationship with Rose Beuret, a seamstress he would finally marry toward the end of his life. In 1872 he worked in Brussels assisting Carrier-Belleuse, who was working on the sculptures for the stock exchange building. In 1875 he participated in the Salon des Artistes in Paris and traveled to Italy, where he visited Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples and Venice. In 1876 he began to work on his first large sculpture, L’Âge d’airain (The Bronze Age), which he finished and exhibited in 1877. He began work on Saint Jean-Baptiste Prêchant (St. John the Baptist Preaching), which he send to the Salon in 1880 along with L’Âge d’airain. The latter obtained a bronze medal and was purchased by the government. He then received the official commission for La Porte de l’Enfer (The Gates of Hell) for the Musée des Arts décoratifs, a project that would occupy him for the rest of his life and that would remain unfinished; some single figures or groups such as Les Trois Ombres (The Three Shades, 1880), Femme accroupie (Crouching Woman, 1885), Vieille courtisane (Old Courtesan, 1885), Le Baiser (The Kiss, 1886) and Le Penseur (The Thinker, 1888), were enlarged and cast separately. Beginning in 1882, Rodin received official commissions for portraits of important figures such as George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), writer Henri Rochefort (1830–1913) and poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867). In 1883 he met Camille Claudel, who was his student, model and lover. In 1884 he presented the first model for Les Bourgeois de Calais (The Burghers of Calais). He also produced figures and groups in marble such as Adam (1881), Ève (Eve, 1882), Ugolin et ses enfants (Ugolino and His Children, 1882), La Main de Dieu (The Hand of God, 1897–1898, Musée Rodin, Paris), and Pygmalion et Galatée (Pigmalion and Galatea) and Baigneuse (Bather, Metropolitan Museum, USA). In 1894, Argentina commissioned him with the monument to President Sarmiento, which was inaugurated in Buenos Aires in 1900, receiving an unfavorable reaction from critics and the public. He later produced monuments to Balzac (1897, Paris) and to Victor Hugo (1909, Paris). His disciples included Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929) and Charles Despiau (1874–1946). In 1916 Rodin left his works to the French state. He died in Meudon, France, on November 17, 1917.

L'Age d'Airain (The Bronze Age), 1875-76

Bronze, black patina, 101.5 x 32 x 27cm

L'Age d'airain (The Bronze Age) is a life-size bronze piece that Rodin had begun in October, 1875 and continued before the trip he made to Italy. In Florence he was impressed by Michelangelo's work, which he studied intensely. This Influence is shown in modeling of the figure and the pose. He raises his right arm to lightly touch his head. Lifted slightly, the left arm is folded in a gesture that terminates with closed fist; his right leg is bent, his full weight resting on the left leg. Rodin proposes a play between the limbs' movements in subtle opposition, applying an Italian formula-contraposto- that Michelangelo had used in some of his works. These movements give rise to a figure that reveals an expression loaded with contained anger and resignation. That was the idea expressed in his first title, Le Vaincu (The Defeated) which it is considered to have been an homage to the soldiers who had fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. L'Age d'airain is one of his works with countless versions. In addition to the examples that were produced based on the original, measuring 175.3 x 67.5 x 52.9cm, there are others smaller examples that were cast, such as ours, measuring 101.5 x 32 x 27cm, and also to a third version known as L'Age d'airain, Petit modele, which is 64.4cm tall.


Auguste Rodin

París, Francia, 1840 - Meudon, Francia, 1917

Rodin was born on November 12, 1840 in Paris, France. His vocation for drawing showed itself while he was still a child. At 14 years of age he was enrolled in the École Impériale de Dessin et de Mathématiques, called La Petite École, where he studied under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran. He also studied drawing at the École de la Manufacture des Gobelins, and history and literature at the Collège de France. In 1857 he attempted to enter the École des Beaux-Arts, but in vain. He worked as an assistant to sculptors and marble cutters dedicated to producing ornaments; among others, for Constant Simon, who he recognized as his maestro in modeling. In 1863 he set up his first studio and began his L’Homme au nez cassé (Man with a Broken Nose), that he presented at the Salon and was rejected. That year he met Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875). In 1864 he studied with Antoine-Louis Barye (1795–1875) at the Muséum d’Histoire naturelle; he entered the Sèvres porcelain studio, run by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887), where he worked for six years. During this time he began a relationship with Rose Beuret, a seamstress he would finally marry toward the end of his life. In 1872 he worked in Brussels assisting Carrier-Belleuse, who was working on the sculptures for the stock exchange building. In 1875 he participated in the Salon des Artistes in Paris and traveled to Italy, where he visited Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples and Venice. In 1876 he began to work on his first large sculpture, L’Âge d’airain (The Bronze Age), which he finished and exhibited in 1877. He began work on Saint Jean-Baptiste Prêchant (St. John the Baptist Preaching), which he send to the Salon in 1880 along with L’Âge d’airain. The latter obtained a bronze medal and was purchased by the government. He then received the official commission for La Porte de l’Enfer (The Gates of Hell) for the Musée des Arts décoratifs, a project that would occupy him for the rest of his life and that would remain unfinished; some single figures or groups such as Les Trois Ombres (The Three Shades, 1880), Femme accroupie (Crouching Woman, 1885), Vieille courtisane (Old Courtesan, 1885), Le Baiser (The Kiss, 1886) and Le Penseur (The Thinker, 1888), were enlarged and cast separately. Beginning in 1882, Rodin received official commissions for portraits of important figures such as George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), writer Henri Rochefort (1830–1913) and poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867). In 1883 he met Camille Claudel, who was his student, model and lover. In 1884 he presented the first model for Les Bourgeois de Calais (The Burghers of Calais). He also produced figures and groups in marble such as Adam (1881), Ève (Eve, 1882), Ugolin et ses enfants (Ugolino and His Children, 1882), La Main de Dieu (The Hand of God, 1897–1898, Musée Rodin, Paris), and Pygmalion et Galatée (Pigmalion and Galatea) and Baigneuse (Bather, Metropolitan Museum, USA). In 1894, Argentina commissioned him with the monument to President Sarmiento, which was inaugurated in Buenos Aires in 1900, receiving an unfavorable reaction from critics and the public. He later produced monuments to Balzac (1897, Paris) and to Victor Hugo (1909, Paris). His disciples included Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929) and Charles Despiau (1874–1946). In 1916 Rodin left his works to the French state. He died in Meudon, France, on November 17, 1917.

Le modele nu (The Nude Model), n/d

Watercolor over graphite line, 35 x 20cm

We know that, before becoming a sculptor, Rodin's artistic vocation was expressed through an interest in drawing. On the one hand, he considered it to be the medium in which to understand and to make manifest diverse human issues. On the other hand, it was the best way to formally study these problems, which he would then work out in his sculptures. Le Modele nu (The Nude Model) and Nu féminin (Feminine Nude) are based on observation of a model, who appears to move about freely in the studio, but we believe to have been posed by the artist. In the first case, she holds a cloth that partially covers the left side of her body, it settles describing a sinuous line that ends in the area of hair on her head. Carried out in watercolor over graphite line, it is interesting to point out the play that areas of wash have in this drawing. The artist works with the figure using flesh tones to achieve effects of light and shadow through diverse transitions. He then highlights the figure by surrounding it with areas of violet, creating shadows in different sectors or emphasizing one in particular, as is the case with her hair. In the case of Nu féminin, the depiction is much less condensed and the application of the watercolor is done with great subtlety. He defines the figure with the graphite line and then applies the watercolor. In the body, the forms are accentuated by way of transparencies that are the result of applying a base color followed by a wash with another color. More than a wash per se, it is a skillfully handled stain, worked into on the damp surface of the previous layer.


Auguste Rodin

París, Francia, 1840 - Meudon, Francia, 1917

Rodin was born on November 12, 1840 in Paris, France. His vocation for drawing showed itself while he was still a child. At 14 years of age he was enrolled in the École Impériale de Dessin et de Mathématiques, called La Petite École, where he studied under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran. He also studied drawing at the École de la Manufacture des Gobelins, and history and literature at the Collège de France. In 1857 he attempted to enter the École des Beaux-Arts, but in vain. He worked as an assistant to sculptors and marble cutters dedicated to producing ornaments; among others, for Constant Simon, who he recognized as his maestro in modeling. In 1863 he set up his first studio and began his L’Homme au nez cassé (Man with a Broken Nose), that he presented at the Salon and was rejected. That year he met Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875). In 1864 he studied with Antoine-Louis Barye (1795–1875) at the Muséum d’Histoire naturelle; he entered the Sèvres porcelain studio, run by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887), where he worked for six years. During this time he began a relationship with Rose Beuret, a seamstress he would finally marry toward the end of his life. In 1872 he worked in Brussels assisting Carrier-Belleuse, who was working on the sculptures for the stock exchange building. In 1875 he participated in the Salon des Artistes in Paris and traveled to Italy, where he visited Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples and Venice. In 1876 he began to work on his first large sculpture, L’Âge d’airain (The Bronze Age), which he finished and exhibited in 1877. He began work on Saint Jean-Baptiste Prêchant (St. John the Baptist Preaching), which he send to the Salon in 1880 along with L’Âge d’airain. The latter obtained a bronze medal and was purchased by the government. He then received the official commission for La Porte de l’Enfer (The Gates of Hell) for the Musée des Arts décoratifs, a project that would occupy him for the rest of his life and that would remain unfinished; some single figures or groups such as Les Trois Ombres (The Three Shades, 1880), Femme accroupie (Crouching Woman, 1885), Vieille courtisane (Old Courtesan, 1885), Le Baiser (The Kiss, 1886) and Le Penseur (The Thinker, 1888), were enlarged and cast separately. Beginning in 1882, Rodin received official commissions for portraits of important figures such as George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), writer Henri Rochefort (1830–1913) and poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867). In 1883 he met Camille Claudel, who was his student, model and lover. In 1884 he presented the first model for Les Bourgeois de Calais (The Burghers of Calais). He also produced figures and groups in marble such as Adam (1881), Ève (Eve, 1882), Ugolin et ses enfants (Ugolino and His Children, 1882), La Main de Dieu (The Hand of God, 1897–1898, Musée Rodin, Paris), and Pygmalion et Galatée (Pigmalion and Galatea) and Baigneuse (Bather, Metropolitan Museum, USA). In 1894, Argentina commissioned him with the monument to President Sarmiento, which was inaugurated in Buenos Aires in 1900, receiving an unfavorable reaction from critics and the public. He later produced monuments to Balzac (1897, Paris) and to Victor Hugo (1909, Paris). His disciples included Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929) and Charles Despiau (1874–1946). In 1916 Rodin left his works to the French state. He died in Meudon, France, on November 17, 1917.

Nu féminin (Feminine Nude), n/d

Watercolor over graphite line, 35 x 20cm

We know that, before becoming a sculptor, Rodin's artistic vocation was expressed through an interest in drawing. On the one hand, he considered it to be the medium in which to understand and to make manifest diverse human issues. On the other hand, it was the best way to formally study these problems, which he would then work out in his sculptures. Le Modele nu (The Nude Model) and Nu féminin (Feminine Nude) are based on observation of a model, who appears to move about freely in the studio, but we believe to have been posed by the artist. In the first case, she holds a cloth that partially covers the left side of her body, it settles describing a sinuous line that ends in the area of hair on her head. Carried out in watercolor over graphite line, it is interesting to point out the play that areas of wash have in this drawing. The artist works with the figure using flesh tones to achieve effects of light and shadow through diverse transitions. He then highlights the figure by surrounding it with areas of violet, creating shadows in different sectors or emphasizing one in particular, as is the case with her hair. In the case of Nu féminin, the depiction is much less condensed and the application of the watercolor is done with great subtlety. He defines the figure with the graphite line and then applies the watercolor. In the body, the forms are accentuated by way of transparencies that are the result of applying a base color followed by a wash with another color. More than a wash per se, it is a skillfully handled stain, worked into on the damp surface of the previous layer.


Auguste Rodin

París, Francia, 1840 - Meudon, Francia, 1917

Rodin was born on November 12, 1840 in Paris, France. His vocation for drawing showed itself while he was still a child. At 14 years of age he was enrolled in the École Impériale de Dessin et de Mathématiques, called La Petite École, where he studied under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran. He also studied drawing at the École de la Manufacture des Gobelins, and history and literature at the Collège de France. In 1857 he attempted to enter the École des Beaux-Arts, but in vain. He worked as an assistant to sculptors and marble cutters dedicated to producing ornaments; among others, for Constant Simon, who he recognized as his maestro in modeling. In 1863 he set up his first studio and began his L’Homme au nez cassé (Man with a Broken Nose), that he presented at the Salon and was rejected. That year he met Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875). In 1864 he studied with Antoine-Louis Barye (1795–1875) at the Muséum d’Histoire naturelle; he entered the Sèvres porcelain studio, run by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887), where he worked for six years. During this time he began a relationship with Rose Beuret, a seamstress he would finally marry toward the end of his life. In 1872 he worked in Brussels assisting Carrier-Belleuse, who was working on the sculptures for the stock exchange building. In 1875 he participated in the Salon des Artistes in Paris and traveled to Italy, where he visited Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples and Venice. In 1876 he began to work on his first large sculpture, L’Âge d’airain (The Bronze Age), which he finished and exhibited in 1877. He began work on Saint Jean-Baptiste Prêchant (St. John the Baptist Preaching), which he send to the Salon in 1880 along with L’Âge d’airain. The latter obtained a bronze medal and was purchased by the government. He then received the official commission for La Porte de l’Enfer (The Gates of Hell) for the Musée des Arts décoratifs, a project that would occupy him for the rest of his life and that would remain unfinished; some single figures or groups such as Les Trois Ombres (The Three Shades, 1880), Femme accroupie (Crouching Woman, 1885), Vieille courtisane (Old Courtesan, 1885), Le Baiser (The Kiss, 1886) and Le Penseur (The Thinker, 1888), were enlarged and cast separately. Beginning in 1882, Rodin received official commissions for portraits of important figures such as George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), writer Henri Rochefort (1830–1913) and poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867). In 1883 he met Camille Claudel, who was his student, model and lover. In 1884 he presented the first model for Les Bourgeois de Calais (The Burghers of Calais). He also produced figures and groups in marble such as Adam (1881), Ève (Eve, 1882), Ugolin et ses enfants (Ugolino and His Children, 1882), La Main de Dieu (The Hand of God, 1897–1898, Musée Rodin, Paris), and Pygmalion et Galatée (Pigmalion and Galatea) and Baigneuse (Bather, Metropolitan Museum, USA). In 1894, Argentina commissioned him with the monument to President Sarmiento, which was inaugurated in Buenos Aires in 1900, receiving an unfavorable reaction from critics and the public. He later produced monuments to Balzac (1897, Paris) and to Victor Hugo (1909, Paris). His disciples included Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929) and Charles Despiau (1874–1946). In 1916 Rodin left his works to the French state. He died in Meudon, France, on November 17, 1917.

Nude, n/d

Graphite and wash on paper, 31.5 x 24cm

We know of drawings where Rodin represented his own sculptures. In many cases they are drawings made to record works or in order to assist the printmakers who had to prepare catalog illustrations and not as studies. But the majorities are figure studies that serve the artist as practice in his way of seeing and conceiving of his sculptures. This is precisely the situation with this feminine nude who bends in toward herself describing a soft, seductive curve (characteristics that are accentuated here by the materials used in the drawing). A soft, clear-cut line serves to describe the figure, which is completed with shadows made using a light wash.


J. M. William Turner

Londres, Inglaterra, 1775 - Chelsea, Inglaterra, 1851

Turner was born in London, England, on April 23, 1775. He was the son of a barber and wigmaker, and his genius made itself manifest early: his first signed drawings, copies of prints, date from 1787. His early art studies were with draughtsman Thomas Malton (1748-1804). On December 11, 1789 he was admitted into the Royal Academy in London. That same year he began producing his albums with views of London and landscapes from surrounding areas. In 1793 he obtained the Greater Silver Ballet, a prize given by England's Society of Arts. Fishermen at Sea (1796, Tate Gallery, London), his first oil painting, was shown at the Royal Academy in 1796. In 1799, at just 24 years of age, he was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy and three years later he was made an effective member. From that moment on, his public recognition would only increase, as did the number of commissions he received. In 1803 he inaugurated a gallery at his own home in London on Harley Street, in order to exhibit his works. In 1807 he published the first volume of his Liber Studiorum, a manual illustrated with his prints on landscape painting. That same year, on November 12, he was named professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, where he gave classes uninterruptedly until 1828, although he maintained the post officially until 1837. In 1822, Turner presented seventeen watercolors at a show organized by William Bernard Cooke in Soho Square, in London. He participated in this show with watercolors again in the years that followed. In 1823, King George IV commissioned him with a large painting on the battle of Trafalgar for the St. James palace in London. The canvas was excessively criticized and the artist was accused of having committed many errors. In 1836 his annual envoy to the Royal Academy was also criticized, since, according to his accusers, he had moved away from a faithful representation of nature. Writer John Ruskin (1819-1900), who would later become his friend and a great collector of his work, came to his defense. In the first volume of his book Modern Painters, published in 1843, he asserted the superiority of modern landscape artists-Turner among them-compared to their predecessors. In 1839, the artist exhibited 40 watercolors in the Music Hall at Leeds. In 1843 he studied Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Theory of Colors in an English translation, and applied it in his paintings. In 1845, due to the president of the Royal Academy's being ill, he held the position during almost a year. The last of his travels correspond to this era. Throughout his lifetime, Turner traveled with great frequency, finding motifs for his works on his trips. As early as 1791 he toured various locations in England to make drawings of the landscape. He visited Bath and Bristol, among other places. He traveled abroad for the first time in 1802 and visited Switzerland and France, where he remained in Paris for one season. In 1816 he went to Yorkshire and Lancashire, in England, and the following year he traveled to Amsterdam, in Holland, and the Rhine region. One year later he traveled to Edinburgh to illustrate Provincial Antiquities of Scotland, a book by Walter Scott (1771-1832). Between 1819 and 1820 he made his first trip to Italy and visited the cities of Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Sorrento and Paestum. The fascination he felt for what he encountered there is reflected in his work and in the fact that he returned to this country time and again, in 1828, 1833, 1840 and 1843. The illustrations that he made for Italy, published in 1830 by English poet Samuel Roger (1763-1855), are also a demonstration of this. In 1825 he traveled to Holland, the Rhineland and Belgium, and the following year, to Brittany and the valleys of Meuse, Moselle and Loire in France. We also owe his Picturesque Views of England and of Wales to his trips to Great Britain, a book with illustrations based on his watercolors, the first part of which was published in 1827. Two years later he traveled to France again; he stopped in Paris and visited Normandy and Brittany. Turner toured continental Europe intensively during the 1830s and until 1845. Afflicted with health problems and able to paint only with difficulty, he spent the last years of his life in the residence he acquired in 1846 at 6 Davis Place on Cremorne New Road, in Chelsea, a suburb of London. He exhibited for the last time at the Royal Academy in 1850, after having participated in their annual show every year since 1796. He died in London one year later, on December 19th. His remains were buried on the 30th of that month in the crypt of St. Paul's cathedral in the same city.

Juliet and her Nurse, 1836

Oil on canvas, 88 x 121cm

In Juliet and her Nurse, Joseph Mallord William Turner presents a view of the main Piazza and the eastern parts of Venice from high above the western end of the Procuratie Nuove, close to the rooftops of the Hotel Europa in which he stayed. At the centre is the Campanile and Basilica of San Marco, the red bricks of the tower emphasizing the unnaturally whitened, almost ghostly domes. To its right is the distinctive upper level of the Doge's Palace, which appears somewhat compressed in Turner's rendering of it. The building with the attenuated cupola to the right is the Zecca, or Mint. Just above this, two vertical strokes of Turner's brush indicate the famous columns of the Lion of San Marco and San Theodore, standing in the Piazzetta. From there the paved Riva degli Schiavoni stretches into the distance, fringed by countless boats. Off to the right, fireworks explode above the larger vessels moored in the harbour alongside Palladio's church of San Giorgio Maggiore. In the square, a mass of revellers are dressed for carnival, their attention divided between musicians, puppet shows and the burst of fireworks alongside Florian's café. This work is a nocturnal scene where fire erupts into the darkness, captivating the onlookers. Some scholars have speculated that Turner exploited these effects to play on the wellestablished comparison between the formerly great Venice, then subject to Austrian law, and contemporary London. The title of the picture, however, invoked Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, the festive Piazza presumably standing in for the Capulet's ball. The young John Ruskin (1819-1900), later an influential writer on art and society, was among those who have taken up the challenge of defending Turner's iconography and his alleged topographical infelicities in the depiction of Venice. But, ultimately, the picture needs no apologist, for it is one of the most appealingly atmospheric canvases of the second half of Turner's career: its powerful combination of dynamic perspective and punctuating bursts of light is readily apparent.


Manolo Valdés

Valencia, España, 1942

Valdés was born in Valencia, Spain, on March 8, 1942. In 1957 he began his studies at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in his native city. Two years later he abandoned the school to dedicate himself completely to painting. In 1964, along with Joan Toledo and Rafael Solbes, he formed the Equipo Crónica. Toledo abandoned the group in 1965, but Valdés and Solbes continued for seventeen years, until Solbes’ death in 1981. Although there are logical differences between the works that he continued to produce afterward and those produced with the Equipo Crónica, Valdés’ artistic principles remained unchanged in his new compositions; his primary interests continue to be art history and the work of some of its greatest protagonists. In his series titled Las meninas, for example, he offers a contemporary interpretation of Velázquez while also establishing connections with another great Spanish artist such as Pablo Picasso. Rembrandt, Rubens and José de Ribera, in addition to contemporary artists such as Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger, have all served him in creating re-readings. Manolo Valdés has participated in numerous solo and group shows. In Buenos Aires he exhibited at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1998. He was awarded diverse prizes, among which figure the Premio Lissone and the Premio Biella, both in Milan, in 1965; the Silver Medal at the II International Printmaking Biennial in Tokyo in 1979, and the Lis’79 prize from the Bridgestone Museum of Art, in Lisbon, Portugal, that same year. In 1984 he received the Premio Alfons Roig (Valencia) and in 1985, the Premio Nacional de Bellas Artes in Spain. In 1986 he was awarded with the Biennial Medal from the International Festival of Visual Artists in Baghdad. He was decorated with the Orden de Andrés Bello in the Banda de Honor class by the Republic of Venezuela in 1993.

Eva I (con Manzana) [Eve I (with Apple)], 1991

Etching on hand-made paper, 178 x 75cm

Founder of the Equipo Crónica, Manolo Valdés is an artist whose work is based on images from the past that he transforms in an intent to create a direct effect on the viewer. His works include aspects that have led him to be linked to the aesthetic of Pop art; however, we believe that they go beyond that, in light of the fact that he makes a commitment in plastic terms that has more closely related to resignifying a work. The two Evas from our collection demonstrate the artist's interest in the past mentioned above. It serves him not as inspiration, but as a point of departure, they are forms that he takes and processes according to his own interests. In this case, the two feminine figures are easily recognized as originating in the works by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, active during the 16th century. In the case of Eva I, it is the Eve that appears in the Adam and Eve diptych, which can be found in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence today. From there, Valdés takes the female figure and recreates it: he inverts it and strips it of all allusions to her role as Eve, such as the apple tree branch that appears with the figure in the original. This branch is substituted by a flat plane with flowers. In this way, Eve is transformed, shedding her primitive role represented by the apple, to be converted into a completely different character, a female archetype that now takes on a different function. A similar process occurs with Eva II, where the reference is a Venus figure, a subject that Cranach handled on several different occasions. In this case we believe that it is the Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey, found today in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Both works are important, recognizable images from Cranach's production and significant forms in the context of art history. Valdés' manipulation converts them into icons that have left their original meaning behind in order to take on a new one that is more in accordance with the postmodern reality in which the artist lives. They are an appeal to the viewer's gallery of memories, who will, in turn, carry out another interpretation based on the artist's suggestion, adding in their own experience.


Manolo Valdés

Valencia, España, 1942

Valdés was born in Valencia, Spain, on March 8, 1942. In 1957 he began his studies at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in his native city. Two years later he abandoned the school to dedicate himself completely to painting. In 1964, along with Joan Toledo and Rafael Solbes, he formed the Equipo Crónica. Toledo abandoned the group in 1965, but Valdés and Solbes continued for seventeen years, until Solbes’ death in 1981. Although there are logical differences between the works that he continued to produce afterward and those produced with the Equipo Crónica, Valdés’ artistic principles remained unchanged in his new compositions; his primary interests continue to be art history and the work of some of its greatest protagonists. In his series titled Las meninas, for example, he offers a contemporary interpretation of Velázquez while also establishing connections with another great Spanish artist such as Pablo Picasso. Rembrandt, Rubens and José de Ribera, in addition to contemporary artists such as Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger, have all served him in creating re-readings. Manolo Valdés has participated in numerous solo and group shows. In Buenos Aires he exhibited at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1998. He was awarded diverse prizes, among which figure the Premio Lissone and the Premio Biella, both in Milan, in 1965; the Silver Medal at the II International Printmaking Biennial in Tokyo in 1979, and the Lis’79 prize from the Bridgestone Museum of Art, in Lisbon, Portugal, that same year. In 1984 he received the Premio Alfons Roig (Valencia) and in 1985, the Premio Nacional de Bellas Artes in Spain. In 1986 he was awarded with the Biennial Medal from the International Festival of Visual Artists in Baghdad. He was decorated with the Orden de Andrés Bello in the Banda de Honor class by the Republic of Venezuela in 1993.

Eva II (con Rosas) [Eve II (with Roses)], 1991

Etching on hand-made paper, 178 x 75cm

Founder of the Equipo Crónica, Manolo Valdés is an artist whose work is based on images from the past that he transforms in an intent to create a direct effect on the viewer. His works include aspects that have led him to be linked to the aesthetic of Pop art; however, we believe that they go beyond that, in light of the fact that he makes a commitment in plastic terms that has more closely related to resignifying a work. The two Evas from our collection demonstrate the artist's interest in the past mentioned above. It serves him not as inspiration, but as a point of departure, they are forms that he takes and processes according to his own interests. In this case, the two feminine figures are easily recognized as originating in the works by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, active during the 16th century. In the case of Eva I, it is the Eve that appears in the Adam and Eve diptych, which can be found in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence today. From there, Valdés takes the female figure and recreates it: he inverts it and strips it of all allusions to her role as Eve, such as the apple tree branch that appears with the figure in the original. This branch is substituted by a flat plane with flowers. In this way, Eve is transformed, shedding her primitive role represented by the apple, to be converted into a completely different character, a female archetype that now takes on a different function. A similar process occurs with Eva II, where the reference is a Venus figure, a subject that Cranach handled on several different occasions. In this case we believe that it is the Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey, found today in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Both works are important, recognizable images from Cranach's production and significant forms in the context of art history. Valdés' manipulation converts them into icons that have left their original meaning behind in order to take on a new one that is more in accordance with the postmodern reality in which the artist lives. They are an appeal to the viewer's gallery of memories, who will, in turn, carry out another interpretation based on the artist's suggestion, adding in their own experience.


Maarten van Heemskerck

Heemskerk, Holanda, 1498-Haarlem, Holanda, 1574

Marten Jacobszoon van Veen Heemskerck was born in Holland in 1498, in the village of Heemskerck, situated between Haarlem and Alkmaar, from which he took his name. He was the son of farmer Jacob Willemsz van Veen. His first painting teacher was Cornelis Willemsz, in Haarlem, and later, Jan Lucasz, in Delft. He returned from Delft in 1527 in order to study with Jan van Scorel, who had returned from Italy and had settled temporarily in Haarlem. In 1532 he left for Rome, where he may have arrived in the summer of 1532. There he studied works from the past and those by artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo and it is supposed that he came into contact with artists like Francesco Salviati. In addition to paintings, he made drawings of classic and contemporary buildings, sculptures, ruins, views of the city, animals, etc. He returned to Haarlem in 1537. There he was a member of the Guild of St. Luke, an official mentor from 1551 to 1552 and dean in 1554. When the Spanish besieged Haarlem in 1572, he moved to Amsterdam, from where he returned the following year. He died on October 1st, 1574, at 76 years of age. Maarten van Heemskerck’s oeuvre was marked by his trip to Italy. It can be divided into three periods, that correspond to a before, during and after that experience. The first of these goes from 1527 to 1532, when he attempted to emulate his maestro Jan van Scorel. His most important work from that period is St. Luke Painting the Portrait of the Virgin (1532, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem), which he left to the Guild of Haarlem on May 23, 1532, when he left for Italy. The second period includes work done during the trip (1532–1536/7), when he would draw the city’s ruins, modern buildings of which two notebooks remain today, at the Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen in Berlin, and works such as Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the Ancient World (1535–1536, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore), Venus and Cupid in Vulcan’s Forge (1536, National Gallery of Prague). The third corresponds to the works produced following his return to Haarlem in 1537 until his death. He painted a good number of portraits using traditional formulas. He was much more innovative in his works on religious themes, many of which have survived, in spite of problems with iconoclasts in 1566. Between 1538 and 1542 he painted the enormous altarpiece titled The Passion of Christ and Scenes From the Life of St. Lawrence for the St. Lawrence of Alkmaar church (today in the Linköping cathedral in Sweden), a Deposition (1559-1560, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels) and The Baptism of Christ (1563, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig). Among his mythological themes are Momus Criticizing the Creations of the Gods (1561, Bode Museum, Berlin), and Victory Parade of Bacchus (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). A Self-portrait dated 1553 exists at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino in Rosario possesses a piece that is assumed to be a self-portrait of Heemskerck. He also created drawings for prints (approximately 600 were made) that distributed his ideas linked to the concept of romanitas that was present after his trip to Rome.

La Torre de Babel (The Tower of Babel), n/d

Oil on canvas, 139 x 181 cm

The theme of the construction of the tower of Babel, a word that signifies confuse, was handled with certain frequency during the late 16th century and early 17th century. It is based on the text from Genesis 11:3-9, which tells how the inhabitants of Shinar, Babylon (or Babel), decided to build a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, an audacity that God punished by confounding the languages of those men (up until that point all humanity spoke in a single language), thus impeding that they understand one another and dispersing them all over the earth. It is supposed that Nemrod, the character who appears on a white horse, was in charge of its construction. The tower that the men are constructing occupies almost the entire left half of the composition, as also happens in the print; toward the other side, to the right, an ample veduta (view) unfolds that leads the viewer's eye toward the distant mountains that finish off the landscape. The immediacy of the foreground allows him to present figures and actions that can be seen in detail and serve to introduce the theme to the viewer, and they are complemented with the diverse motifs that appear throughout the landscape in addition to those offered by the tower itself, with its spiral road and the secondary constructions raised up on its different levels. There are sectors that present focal points of interest elaborated in detail, such as the workshop where the blocks are prepared, groups occupied with their transport, the boats in the port, the houses and the temple with its architectural details, the waterfalls along the river, the island and other punctuations in the geography that extends in the distance, the mountains, the sky and the dense clouds that cover the sky. With a small print as his point of departure, our painter has managed to compose a scene full of life and loaded with meaning that responds to the demands of a conflictive, changeable era that would decide new directions in the culture of Northern Europe.


Alejo Vidal-Quadras

Barcelona, España, 1919 - París, Francia, 1994

Vidal-Quadras was born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 12, 1919 and died in Paris, France, on January 23, 1994. Although from Catalonia, he settled in Cannes, France, with his family when he was 5 years old. Already back in Spain in 1931, he entered the Bonanova College in Barcelona, and stayed at that institution until 1936. His first solo show was held at Galería Zinco in Barcelona in 1941. From 1941 to 1943 he lived in Santiago, Chile, initiating a promising career as a portraitist. There he showed at Galería Eyzaguirre in 1942. Following his stay in Chile, he spent three years in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, where his fame became solidly established. In this city he exhibited at the Müller gallery in 1943 and 1944, and at the Witcomb gallery in 1946. In 1947 he traveled to Paris, France, where he settled, making regular visits to his native Barcelona. In 1949 his first show in Paris was held at the André Weill gallery. One year later, he married young Argentinean actress Tilda Thamar. That year, 1950, would mark the beginning of the many portraits that he would make for royal European families and the great celebrities of the day. He exhibited in Spain in Barcelona (Galerías Layetanas), Madrid (Museo de Arte Moderno) and Bilbao (Galerie Studio). He exhibited for the second time in Paris in the André Weill gallery in 1951, and in 1953, in the Edgard VII exhibition hall, in that same city. One year later he showed at the Bienal de Arte Hispano Americano in Madrid, and at the Viau and Layetanas galleries, in Buenos Aires and Barcelona, respectively. In 1955, the Countess of Paris, Isabel de Orleans y Braganza, commissioned him with the portraits of her eleven children. This assignment brought him international fame and consolidated his talent as the era’s great portraitist for decades to come. The exhibitions in Paris and Barcelona were repeated, and from 1961 onward, he began to show in the United States of America, in Florida and New York. In 1965 he exhibited in London, England, in the Frank Partridge gallery, where he would return five years later, and also in 1982. On January 5, 1977 he married once again, this time with Marie-Charlotte Pedrazzini, in a church in Ayen, Switzerland. During the 1980s, Vidal-Quadras and his wife acquired a house in Palm Beach, Florida. He then alternated his residency between Paris and the United States. He exhibited at the Wally Findlay gallery in Paris in 1980, in their New York location in 1986, and from 1983 on, periodically at the Palm Beach branch. He continued to receive commissions from all over the world on an uninterrupted basis until his death at 75 years of age.

Portrait of Mrs.Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, 1946

Charcoal and pastel on paper, 100 x 70cm

Catalonian artist Alejo Vidal-Quadras came to be known as a portraitist mid-way through the 20th century. The epoch's most eminent figures posed for him. Throughout his career and as his fame increased, he received commissions from the European nobility and aristocracy worldwide. In his professional work, his humility obliged him not to refer to himself as an artist, and he would decline to say that he created, he considered himself to be a craftsman who executed paintings. During his sessions, he would converse with the model in order to capture their gestures, facial expressions and emotions in order to discover their personality. After these talks, by way of short, intense encounters, he would launch into the drawing with great velocity and precision. He would make many versions, following the impulse awakened in him by the person being portrayed at that moment. He did not care for lengthy sessions spent on a single work, but rather the spontaneity of the first drawing; the freedom and decision of the first stroke of charcoal or the lightness of oil in the fluid movement of the brush. The artist was interested only in his model's personality, and as such the technique chosen depended on the psychology of the person portrayed. Each material chosen reveals inner aspects of the personality in question. For the same reason, the background or surroundings are not important, they are only a superfluous anecdote. In some works no more than scant areas of color are employed to set off the model's figure. The first portrait he made of Mrs. Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat is from the 1940s, a period in which Vidal-Quadras resided in South America, living in Chile and Argentina. It is a charcoal piece where the artist's intention is focused on faithfully reflecting the true nature of the person portrayed. The drawing is correct, with vigorous strokes in the figure and delicate transitions in value in the face. In the oil painting Retrato de la señora Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat (Portrait of Mrs. Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat), painted in Cap d'Antibes in 1962, the material flows rapidly across the canvas in quick brushstrokes that delimit contours and forms, creating volume. In order to achieve the likeness of the figure portrayed, the precise drawing is concentrated only in the face. The rest of the canvas is handled in a spontaneous manner, executed with great freshness. The background is constituted of gestural strokes loaded with paint that serve the artist to create contrast with the figure. At the same time, some differences in value -darker and lighter zones- in the background insinuate a certain spatial structure. Retrato del señor Alfredo Fortabat (Portrait of Mr. Alfredo Fortabat), painted in Paris in 1961, on the other hand, is a charcoal drawing on paper with some accents in white oil paint. The pictorial strategy is similar to the other work in terms of the looseness of the drawing. Rapid strokes concentrate and become more detailed in the face and hands. The figure dominates the entire space of the composition.


Alejo Vidal-Quadras

Barcelona, España, 1919 - París, Francia, 1994

Vidal-Quadras was born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 12, 1919 and died in Paris, France, on January 23, 1994. Although from Catalonia, he settled in Cannes, France, with his family when he was 5 years old. Already back in Spain in 1931, he entered the Bonanova College in Barcelona, and stayed at that institution until 1936. His first solo show was held at Galería Zinco in Barcelona in 1941. From 1941 to 1943 he lived in Santiago, Chile, initiating a promising career as a portraitist. There he showed at Galería Eyzaguirre in 1942. Following his stay in Chile, he spent three years in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, where his fame became solidly established. In this city he exhibited at the Müller gallery in 1943 and 1944, and at the Witcomb gallery in 1946. In 1947 he traveled to Paris, France, where he settled, making regular visits to his native Barcelona. In 1949 his first show in Paris was held at the André Weill gallery. One year later, he married young Argentinean actress Tilda Thamar. That year, 1950, would mark the beginning of the many portraits that he would make for royal European families and the great celebrities of the day. He exhibited in Spain in Barcelona (Galerías Layetanas), Madrid (Museo de Arte Moderno) and Bilbao (Galerie Studio). He exhibited for the second time in Paris in the André Weill gallery in 1951, and in 1953, in the Edgard VII exhibition hall, in that same city. One year later he showed at the Bienal de Arte Hispano Americano in Madrid, and at the Viau and Layetanas galleries, in Buenos Aires and Barcelona, respectively. In 1955, the Countess of Paris, Isabel de Orleans y Braganza, commissioned him with the portraits of her eleven children. This assignment brought him international fame and consolidated his talent as the era’s great portraitist for decades to come. The exhibitions in Paris and Barcelona were repeated, and from 1961 onward, he began to show in the United States of America, in Florida and New York. In 1965 he exhibited in London, England, in the Frank Partridge gallery, where he would return five years later, and also in 1982. On January 5, 1977 he married once again, this time with Marie-Charlotte Pedrazzini, in a church in Ayen, Switzerland. During the 1980s, Vidal-Quadras and his wife acquired a house in Palm Beach, Florida. He then alternated his residency between Paris and the United States. He exhibited at the Wally Findlay gallery in Paris in 1980, in their New York location in 1986, and from 1983 on, periodically at the Palm Beach branch. He continued to receive commissions from all over the world on an uninterrupted basis until his death at 75 years of age.

Portrait of Mr.Alfredo Fortabat, 1961

Charcoal and pastel on paper, 102 x 71.5cm

Catalonian artist Alejo Vidal-Quadras came to be known as a portraitist mid-way through the 20th century. The epoch's most eminent figures posed for him. Throughout his career and as his fame increased, he received commissions from the European nobility and aristocracy worldwide. In his professional work, his humility obliged him not to refer to himself as an artist, and he would decline to say that he created, he considered himself to be a craftsman who executed paintings. During his sessions, he would converse with the model in order to capture their gestures, facial expressions and emotions in order to discover their personality. After these talks, by way of short, intense encounters, he would launch into the drawing with great velocity and precision. He would make many versions, following the impulse awakened in him by the person being portrayed at that moment. He did not care for lengthy sessions spent on a single work, but rather the spontaneity of the first drawing; the freedom and decision of the first stroke of charcoal or the lightness of oil in the fluid movement of the brush. The artist was interested only in his model's personality, and as such the technique chosen depended on the psychology of the person portrayed. Each material chosen reveals inner aspects of the personality in question. For the same reason, the background or surroundings are not important, they are only a superfluous anecdote. In some works no more than scant areas of color are employed to set off the model's figure. The first portrait he made of Mrs. Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat is from the 1940s, a period in which Vidal-Quadras resided in South America, living in Chile and Argentina. It is a charcoal piece where the artist's intention is focused on faithfully reflecting the true nature of the person portrayed. The drawing is correct, with vigorous strokes in the figure and delicate transitions in value in the face. In the oil painting Retrato de la señora Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat (Portrait of Mrs. Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat), painted in Cap d'Antibes in 1962, the material flows rapidly across the canvas in quick brushstrokes that delimit contours and forms, creating volume. In order to achieve the likeness of the figure portrayed, the precise drawing is concentrated only in the face. The rest of the canvas is handled in a spontaneous manner, executed with great freshness. The background is constituted of gestural strokes loaded with paint that serve the artist to create contrast with the figure. At the same time, some differences in value -darker and lighter zones- in the background insinuate a certain spatial structure. Retrato del señor Alfredo Fortabat (Portrait of Mr. Alfredo Fortabat), painted in Paris in 1961, on the other hand, is a charcoal drawing on paper with some accents in white oil paint. The pictorial strategy is similar to the other work in terms of the looseness of the drawing. Rapid strokes concentrate and become more detailed in the face and hands. The figure dominates the entire space of the composition.


Alejo Vidal-Quadras

Barcelona, España, 1919 - París, Francia, 1994

Vidal-Quadras was born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 12, 1919 and died in Paris, France, on January 23, 1994. Although from Catalonia, he settled in Cannes, France, with his family when he was 5 years old. Already back in Spain in 1931, he entered the Bonanova College in Barcelona, and stayed at that institution until 1936. His first solo show was held at Galería Zinco in Barcelona in 1941. From 1941 to 1943 he lived in Santiago, Chile, initiating a promising career as a portraitist. There he showed at Galería Eyzaguirre in 1942. Following his stay in Chile, he spent three years in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, where his fame became solidly established. In this city he exhibited at the Müller gallery in 1943 and 1944, and at the Witcomb gallery in 1946. In 1947 he traveled to Paris, France, where he settled, making regular visits to his native Barcelona. In 1949 his first show in Paris was held at the André Weill gallery. One year later, he married young Argentinean actress Tilda Thamar. That year, 1950, would mark the beginning of the many portraits that he would make for royal European families and the great celebrities of the day. He exhibited in Spain in Barcelona (Galerías Layetanas), Madrid (Museo de Arte Moderno) and Bilbao (Galerie Studio). He exhibited for the second time in Paris in the André Weill gallery in 1951, and in 1953, in the Edgard VII exhibition hall, in that same city. One year later he showed at the Bienal de Arte Hispano Americano in Madrid, and at the Viau and Layetanas galleries, in Buenos Aires and Barcelona, respectively. In 1955, the Countess of Paris, Isabel de Orleans y Braganza, commissioned him with the portraits of her eleven children. This assignment brought him international fame and consolidated his talent as the era’s great portraitist for decades to come. The exhibitions in Paris and Barcelona were repeated, and from 1961 onward, he began to show in the United States of America, in Florida and New York. In 1965 he exhibited in London, England, in the Frank Partridge gallery, where he would return five years later, and also in 1982. On January 5, 1977 he married once again, this time with Marie-Charlotte Pedrazzini, in a church in Ayen, Switzerland. During the 1980s, Vidal-Quadras and his wife acquired a house in Palm Beach, Florida. He then alternated his residency between Paris and the United States. He exhibited at the Wally Findlay gallery in Paris in 1980, in their New York location in 1986, and from 1983 on, periodically at the Palm Beach branch. He continued to receive commissions from all over the world on an uninterrupted basis until his death at 75 years of age.

Portrait of Mrs.Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, 1962

Oil on canvas, 98 x 79cm

Catalonian artist Alejo Vidal-Quadras came to be known as a portraitist mid-way through the 20th century. The epoch's most eminent figures posed for him. Throughout his career and as his fame increased, he received commissions from the European nobility and aristocracy worldwide. In his professional work, his humility obliged him not to refer to himself as an artist, and he would decline to say that he created, he considered himself to be a craftsman who executed paintings. During his sessions, he would converse with the model in order to capture their gestures, facial expressions and emotions in order to discover their personality. After these talks, by way of short, intense encounters, he would launch into the drawing with great velocity and precision. He would make many versions, following the impulse awakened in him by the person being portrayed at that moment. He did not care for lengthy sessions spent on a single work, but rather the spontaneity of the first drawing; the freedom and decision of the first stroke of charcoal or the lightness of oil in the fluid movement of the brush. The artist was interested only in his model's personality, and as such the technique chosen depended on the psychology of the person portrayed. Each material chosen reveals inner aspects of the personality in question. For the same reason, the background or surroundings are not important, they are only a superfluous anecdote. In some works no more than scant areas of color are employed to set off the model's figure. The first portrait he made of Mrs. Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat is from the 1940s, a period in which Vidal-Quadras resided in South America, living in Chile and Argentina. It is a charcoal piece where the artist's intention is focused on faithfully reflecting the true nature of the person portrayed. The drawing is correct, with vigorous strokes in the figure and delicate transitions in value in the face. In the oil painting Retrato de la señora Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat (Portrait of Mrs. Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat), painted in Cap d'Antibes in 1962, the material flows rapidly across the canvas in quick brushstrokes that delimit contours and forms, creating volume. In order to achieve the likeness of the figure portrayed, the precise drawing is concentrated only in the face. The rest of the canvas is handled in a spontaneous manner, executed with great freshness. The background is constituted of gestural strokes loaded with paint that serve the artist to create contrast with the figure. At the same time, some differences in value -darker and lighter zones- in the background insinuate a certain spatial structure. Retrato del señor Alfredo Fortabat (Portrait of Mr. Alfredo Fortabat), painted in Paris in 1961, on the other hand, is a charcoal drawing on paper with some accents in white oil paint. The pictorial strategy is similar to the other work in terms of the looseness of the drawing. Rapid strokes concentrate and become more detailed in the face and hands. The figure dominates the entire space of the composition.


Andy Warhol

Forest City, Pensilvania, Estados Unidos, 1928 - Nueva York, Estados Unidos, 1987

Andrew Warhola was born in Forest City, Pennsylvania, on August 6, 1928. He studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh from 1945 to 1949, receiving a degree in Arts in 1949. That same year he moved to New York, where he worked at Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines, and produced advertisements for the Miller (shoe) company. At that time he adopted the name Andy Warhol. In 1952 his first solo show was held. In 1956 he traveled to Europe and, once back in New York, participated in the Recent Drawings USA show at the Museum of Modern Art; he also received the Annual Prize from the Art Director's Club (in its XXXV edition) for a piece done for Miller. The following year the same institution awarded him with their medal. In 1960 he began to include comic frames in his works and he made his first paintings with the Coca-Cola bottle, glimpsing the importance of publicity, which he introduced into the art world. Two years later he painted the Campbell's soup cans and began to work in serigraphy with film stars. He participated in The New Realists show, which established Pop Art. He founded The Factory, a studio-house where he worked with assistants and produced over 2,000 works between 1962 and 1964. That year he exhibited for the first time in Europe. From 1965 to 1967 he produced records for the musical group The Velvet Underground. In 1968, Valerie Solanas made an attempt on Warhol's life. One year later, Warhol published his magazine, InterView. During the 1970s he made diverse portraits of popular celebrities like Mick Jagger, Carolina Herrera, Liza Minnelli and Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Mao Tse-tung; some of these were shown in Portraits of the Seventies at the Whitney Museum in New York (1979). He also painted race cars, creating the art car; he produced his time capsules and published his first book in 1975, Philosophy of Andy Warhol. In 1981 he experimented with works by Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli and Paolo Uccello and with the use of photographs; he continued to create portraits of celebrities, magnates, designers, businessmen and other wealthy people. He returned to the theme of catastrophic auto accidents, which he had already handled in 1962, and in 1986 painted his last works, a portrait of Lenin and a self-portrait. Film and television were worlds that also interested him as early as 1963; he made over 70 films and also made products for television, where he established his renowned 15 minutes of fame. He died in New York on February 22, 1987, at 58 years of age.

Portrait of Mrs.Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, 1980

Mixed media on canvas, 102 x 102cm

The Campbell's soup cans that Andy Warhol painted in the early 1960s are some of the most recognized and symbolic works to have come out of a decade of profound changes that have outlined the world as we know it today. In the art world, the emergence of these themes responds to a new aesthetic will coming from an artist who declares as much with artistic courage, and reproduces it in great numbers as well. There can be no doubt that Warhol had the talent to glimpse and appreciate the role that the communications media were playing and would play before anyone else. Later it would be the discovery of newspaper photography that would lead him to renew his imagery, and his production and reproduction techniques. In our Retrato de la señora Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat (Portrait of Mrs. Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat), a crop that he has used for personalities from the international world is employed, where only a fragment of the shoulders of the person portrayed are visible. On the square surface of the work, the subject is represented looking straight ahead, an attitude that establishes a frank communication with the viewer. Her earrings and hairstyle, along with her bare shoulders, are transformed here into signs that serve to create an unmistakable atmosphere of elegance that refers us immediately to the world of the person portrayed. In this work there is no reference to a determined location, it is an image that could exist -and this, in fact, is precisely the case- in any scenario that receives international personalities; but the viewer will also connect this image to the world of the media, which is what the artist is interested in. The background color gives the representation a certain unreal touch, an idea that is confirmed when we perceive that it is the color that he has used to represent shadows and highlights in the hair. The author looks to create an absolute contrast with the color used for the flesh tone, a contrast that is accentuated by the transitions between the flat planes that make up the composition. As such, the result is a work that constitutes a very good example of the ideas that Andy Warhol put into play in his artistic production.


Jacques Witjens Stephan

La Haya, Holanda, 1881 - Buenos Aires, Argentina 1956

Adrianus Hendrikus Witjens was born in The Hague, Holland, on April 11, 1881. He did not have a formal art education, but in his native city he worked with painter and lithographer August Allebe, from whom he learned the rudiments of art. In 1912 he was awarded the First Prize in the Bignall Competition. Toward the end of the decade he lived alternatively between Haarlem and Utrecht. In 1920 he arrived in Buenos Aires, where he settled definitively. In this city he exhibited regularly beginning in 1925, when his first solo show took place at the Círculo Belga. He would also do so in cities in the interior of the country (Mendoza, Mar del Plata, Tandil). In 1947 he obtained the Premio Especial al Mejor Paisaje del Delta in the Salón de San Fernando (Buenos Aires) and in 1948, he was awarded the Premio Único para Extranjeros in the Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas. Witjens was a prolific artist, working in painting and drawing. His principal theme was the landscape, but he also elaborated works in the folk genre and still life; he generally worked on a small scale. The works from his European period, city views, canals and windmills are characterized by the use of vigorous brushstrokes loaded with paint, as well as by his palette of low-intensity earth tones and browns. In our country his palette becomes further enriched, his brushstrokes become softened and, without abandoning landscape and motifs from his homeland, he paints views of Buenos Aires, the Paraná River delta, the Atlantic coast and Northern Argentina. He died in Buenos Aires on December 7, 1956.

Paisaje lacustre (Lacustrine Landscape), s/d

Oil on canvas, 50 x 70cm

Paisaje lacustre (Lacustrine Landscape), is a scene in the countryside dominated by a brook that mildly flows through the autumn-toned green and ochre countryside, where some men work alongside a boat. The palette is comprised of greens and greenish blues, to which notes of yellow and ochre are added, rounded out by the tenuous blues and pinks in the sky. The artist makes use of certain graphic marks to define the grasses that cover the bank, in addition to the branches and foliage, especially in the two large trees on the left. In the trees' shadows and in the reflections on the water, the paint is applied with certain impasto, building up a surface with a soft, velvety appearance that contributes to the creation of a pleasant, pacific scene whose calm is disrupted only by the men's labor. Their presence is the only note of dynamism that serves to activate the composition. Possibly inspired by the Paraná River delta, an ample region that neighbors the city of Buenos Aires that the artist also introduced into his repertoire of subject matter, this scene can easily be assimilated to those of small Dutch canals, frequently dominated by the presence of a windmill that he painted on reiterated occasions.


Jacques Witjens Stephan

La Haya, Holanda, 1881 - Buenos Aires, Argentina 1956

Adrianus Hendrikus Witjens was born in The Hague, Holland, on April 11, 1881. He did not have a formal art education, but in his native city he worked with painter and lithographer August Allebe, from whom he learned the rudiments of art. In 1912 he was awarded the First Prize in the Bignall Competition. Toward the end of the decade he lived alternatively between Haarlem and Utrecht. In 1920 he arrived in Buenos Aires, where he settled definitively. In this city he exhibited regularly beginning in 1925, when his first solo show took place at the Círculo Belga. He would also do so in cities in the interior of the country (Mendoza, Mar del Plata, Tandil). In 1947 he obtained the Premio Especial al Mejor Paisaje del Delta in the Salón de San Fernando (Buenos Aires) and in 1948, he was awarded the Premio Único para Extranjeros in the Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas. Witjens was a prolific artist, working in painting and drawing. His principal theme was the landscape, but he also elaborated works in the folk genre and still life; he generally worked on a small scale. The works from his European period, city views, canals and windmills are characterized by the use of vigorous brushstrokes loaded with paint, as well as by his palette of low-intensity earth tones and browns. In our country his palette becomes further enriched, his brushstrokes become softened and, without abandoning landscape and motifs from his homeland, he paints views of Buenos Aires, the Paraná River delta, the Atlantic coast and Northern Argentina. He died in Buenos Aires on December 7, 1956.

Dutch Canal, n/d

Oil on canvas, 44 x 58cm

A line of houses among which a church tower stands out to the right encloses this urban view; the houses rise up along a street on the edge of an ample canal, whose opposite side comes into view on the right, with houses of a similar architecture, characterized by tall, peaked roofs. On this side a pier with several people can also be seen. In the water, several ships show certain activity. The composition is completed by a sky that is reflected in the water below, lending a bright light to the scene. The architecture, water and sky are all accommodated according to a formula that was developed by Dutch painters during the 17th century: a very low horizon line appears in the lower third of the work, leaving the remaining two thirds for the sky. In many cases, the sky is populated by diverse clouds that move and illuminate with different situations of light and reflections, thus taking on a central role, just as is the case during the course of the day in Holland. In the case of our Canal de Holanda, the sky is calm, enriched only by a few diaphanous clouds, with scant touches of blue and pink, reflected in the water. The ships' shadows in the water, along with the colors of the architecture, serve to generate a calm, pleasant atmosphere that constitutes the theme of this painting. The canvas can be reduced to a single pinkish blue plane ruptured by ochres, earth tones and reds in the urban section and by certain points of light, such as the headdress of a figure on the right, the white of a wall at the base of the church or a light touch seen on the extreme left of the canvas. These break up the homogeneity of the scene and create focal points that animate the composition.


Félix-François Georges Philibert Ziem

Beaune, Francia, 1821 - París, Francia, 1911

Ziem was born in 1821 in Beaune, in the Côte d’Or area of the Burgundy region in France. His mother was a native of Burgundy, while his father was a Croatian immigrant. He studied at the Dijon School of Architecture, and worked for a time as an architect. However, painting soon changed from a pastime to a career, and he even undertook teaching it at an academy that he opened in Marseille. In 1841 he began a trip to Italy, by way of Nice. In 1842 he visited Venice, a city that would become a source for many of his works. In 1849 he settled in Paris, joining the painters of the Barbizon school, in a relationship that would last for some time. He painted alongside Charles-François Daubigny in Jouarre and with Eugène Boudin in Le Havre. From that year until 1868, he regularly sent works to the Salon de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts. He was awarded a medal in the third category in 1851 and others in the first category in 1852 and 1855. From 1870 on he was a member of the Salon jury. At that time his trips were less frequent, although he maintained studios in Paris, Marseille, Nice and Martigues. In 1857 he was named Knight of the Legion of Honor, an Officer in 1878 and Commander in 1908. In 1910 one of his works entered the Louvre, and as such was the first living artist whose work was admitted into the Museum. That same year, the Ziem Museum was opened in Martigues. He died in Paris in 1911.

The Grand Canal,Venice, n/d

Oil on canvas, 67.5 x 110cm

An ample panorama of Venice's lagoon is the scene that Félix Ziem portrays in this work. Il bacino di San Marco (The San Marco Basin), as it is known, serves as the backdrop for a variety of activities that are carried out by several embarkations. In the foreground, a gondola with a group of rowers crosses from one side of the scene to the other, in front of a large ship with its sails unfurled, but at rest. To the left, in the middle ground, another gondola can be seen whose gondolier stands out against the background landscape. In the far ground, the city is seen in profile, where some buildings emblematic of La Serenissima can be distinguished: to the left, the peak of the Dogana di Mare, with the cupolas of Santa Maria Della Salutte; to the right, the great mass of the Palazzo Ducale with the San Marcos bell tower. The sky is an intense blue, with a few small soft scudding clouds, and the atmosphere created is calm, enveloping the view and completing the composition, in which Félix Ziem evokes one of his favorite scenes. The water of the lagoon is full of movement and sparkles due to the impasto, while the sky has consistence and yet is translucent at the same time. Here he uses a compositional scheme that defines a scenario where one element of interest, such as the boat with sails, stands out. By establishing a difference between different elements based on scale or size, he is able to accentuate contrasts and give emphasis to the motif that interests him. But, at the same time, he creates a soft transition between the foreground and the city that can be recognized in the background through the use of other boats, shadows and the movement in the water's reflections.