Part 5

Spanish painting was completely modernized during the last years of the nineteenth century. Three great international events took place during that period--the three exhibitions in Paris of the years 1878, 1889 and 1900. At these Spanish painting was fully represented. At the first was shown a varied collection of the works of Fortuny--one of the most famous artists of his time--who had died shortly before. In the second we experienced a rebuff, for a number of historical paintings of enormous proportions, full of the inspiration of the past, were not admitted, nor, indeed, were some of these worthy to hang in the exhibition. But in the years between 1889 and 1900 the development of Spanish painting was most marked, and in the last of the exhibitions alluded to the Spanish salons revealed a high level of excellence and a significant modernity. Moreover, there emerged the personality of a young painter, hitherto unknown, who by unanimous consent was regarded as well-nigh qualifying for the highest honours. This was a man whose name shortly afterwards became famous throughout the world--Joaquín Sorolla, one of those personalities who from time to time arise in Spain quite unexpectedly.

Sorolla, who was of humble origin, was born in Valencia, and in his youth was naturally influenced by the paintings of the old masters in his native city. He went to Madrid, later to Italy, and finally to Paris, where his work of a wholly realistic character was admired, for actuality was to this painter as the breath of life. A French advocate of naturalism has said “one rule alone guides the art of painting, the law of values, the manner in which the light plays upon an object, in which the light distributes colour over it; the light, and only the light is that which fixes the position of each object; it is the life of every scene reproduced in painting.” This statement Sorolla seems to have taken greatly to heart, even while he was still under the influence of old traditions and standards of thought.

Possessing a temperament of much forcefulness, and of great productive exuberance, enthusiastic about the scenery of the Mediterranean, and especially enamoured of the richness of colour of his native soil, the ruddy earth planted with orange-trees, the blue sea and the dazzling sky, Sorolla, oblivious of what he had done before, felt a powerful impulse to paint that which was rich in colour, so greatly was he moved by the eastern spirit. The coasts of Valencia, the lives of the fishermen, those children of the sea, the bullocks drawing the boats, the scenes beneath the cliffs and other analogous subjects, painted in full sunlight--the sunlight of July and August for preference--these are the subjects on which Sorolla laboured for several years, producing canvas after canvas, now famous both in Europe and America.

We do not say that this outlook is ideal, but the study of light and atmosphere was a contribution to the history of modern art, and was among the elements which will be handed down to posterity as the original note of the painters of the last years of the nineteenth century. Of these Sorolla was one of the most forceful, and we lay stress upon his work, as in our judgment its importance demands especial notice. We have not alluded to his great talent as a portrait painter, nor to the decorative works which he has dedicated to the Hispanic Society of America in New York, and which, although they are completed, are not yet installed in place. Some few years after the appearance of Sorolla, there arose almost simultaneously two Spanish painters of other tendencies, equally noteworthy, and whose names are universally known--Zuloaga and Anglada. Zuloaga must be regarded in a very different manner from Sorolla. In no sense does he go to nature merely to copy it in the manner in which it presents itself to our vision, but he seeks, both in nature and humanity, for types, for characteristic figures of a representative and realistic kind. His work has developed with robustness and force, and attracts the attention of the modern critic eager for characteristic and singular qualities. To his reception in the universal world of art it is not necessary to allude here. The reviews and periodicals of all countries have commented with praise upon the achievements of this master, who is still busily at work, constantly engaged in the representation of popular types in the characteristic costume of many regions, especially his own people, the Basques, and the Castilians, for whom he appears to have a special predilection.

Those landscapes which he takes for the backgrounds of his pictures also seem to be inspired by that love of character which animates all his productions. In his latest phase, too, he has executed numerous portraits of people of different social categories. In technique it is noticeable that Zuloaga strives to preserve those tonalities which characterize the Spanish School; and the study he has made of the works of Velázquez and Goya is manifested in the lively reminiscences of these masterpieces displayed at times in his pictures, which exhibit, nevertheless, a relative modernity.

Anglada is, in our view, completely distinct from Sorolla and Zuloaga. Enamoured of the charm of colour, his work has no connection with schools or traditions. Aloof from every influence, he aspires to nothing so much as rich colour-schemes and harmonies, and seeks inspiration in night-bound gardens, brightly illuminated, in subjects which reflect electric light, and in figures which appear all the more distinct as the background is often the sea beneath the radiance of the Mediterranean light. These unusual sources of inspiration appear strange at first sight; but it is noticeable that they manifest on the part of the painter always the same idea of seeking for rich colouring. We must regard Anglada as one of the most remarkable and most original of modern painters. It is a great pity that he was not represented at Burlington House. His absence, like that of Sert, the great decorative painter, Beltran, Miguel Nieto and others, was accounted for by the fact that the pictures were received too late to be included in the Exhibition.

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The salons set apart for modern painting at the London Exhibition seem to us to have been disposed and arranged with care. There were shown in the first of these rooms works by Sorolla, his disciple Benedito, one of the most esteemed portrait painters in Madrid, Zaragoza, Moisés, Carlos Vázquez, and some landscapes by Rusiñol. The second room was in complete harmony with the first, and in it we observed the works of artists, some of whom are still young, but nevertheless masters of strong propensity and perfect equilibrium; the great composition by Gonzalo Bilbao, _The Cigar-makers_ (Plate XXXVII.); the striking portraits of Chicharro and Sotomayor; the unmistakably Spanish canvases of Mezquita and Rodriguez Acosta; and the picturesque and suggestive note of the Valencian figures by Pinazo Martinez.

The neighbouring room was dedicated to those who may be called painters of character, for such was the exclusive note of all the works shown there. It would not be easy to say who occupied the place of honour here, Zuloaga, Romero de Torres, an artist of Cordova, who has tried to create a type of female beauty famous throughout Spain, the brothers Zubiaurre, peculiarly Basque in feeling, and now well known everywhere, Salaverria, Ortiz Echagüe, Arrúe, Juan Luis y Arteta, a delicate and emotional painter who has found on the Basque shores subjects for pictures unusually simple, in which is displayed a delicacy of technical expression together with the significance of an idea, inspired, like his subjects, by a simple poetry.

Following these, in still other rooms, were hung works similar in type, but bolder, perhaps, such as those of Solana, whose three canvases, painted in low tones, were of great interest and excited much remark in the exhibition; Vázquez Díaz, so various in his subjects, but always individual; Maeztu, the consistent exponent of a colossal and decorative style; Castelucho, Urgell, Guezala; and Astruc y Sancha, who combines caricature of consummate mastery with the painting of landscapes of manifest originality.

In another room were exhibited smaller landscapes. These included examples of Rusiñol, Beruete, Regoyos, Meifren, Forns, Raurich, Colom, Grosso and Mir. Among the work of other young painters of promise but as yet little known, we must mention the seascapes of Verdugo Landi and Nogue.

The next salon, known as the Lecture Room, formed a kind of overflow for the last, and contained pictures by Hermoso, Garnelo, Simonet, Morera, Marin Bagües, Canals, Cardona, Villegas Brieva, Oroz, Madrazo-Ochoa, Covarsi, Bermejo, and many other artists, a list of whom would be much too extensive for inclusion here.

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We do not think that the assertion that Spanish painting has been a powerful factor in the history and development of universal art will be regarded by anyone as a discovery, nor will such a statement appear as a result of patriotic enthusiasm. Spanish painting to-day follows its brilliant traditions; and although we believe this present period to be one of gestation, it occasionally reveals qualities of splendour and greatness. It is indubitably lacking in marked and decided outlook, but it is, nevertheless, universally respected and suffers, at the most, merely from the exigencies of the time. Moreover, not a few critics of distinction in the Peninsula, who concern themselves with the study of particular movements, see in it a tendency to the formation of regional groups. The central one naturally has its focus in Madrid, and radiates thence over the whole of Spain; but a large output is always forthcoming from the cities of Seville and Valencia, which appear, by the light of tradition, as the most brilliant centres of pictorial art. There are, moreover, two other regions which have produced rich and flourishing art--Catalonia and the Basque provinces, with their two capital cities, Barcelona and Bilbao.

Catalan art is no new thing in Spanish tradition, and is in a measure descended from that which was formerly the art of the Kingdom of Aragon before the national union. The Catalans have confined it entirely to their territory, have cultivated it with enthusiasm, and have created a Catalan school of Spanish Art. It is a great pity that they have not tried to preserve a more national spirit and have frequently sought inspiration from foreign sources, especially from France. But, this notwithstanding, Catalan achievement is indeed most worthy of praise.

The artistic production of the Basque provinces is forcible and original. The Basques, with a scanty pictorial tradition, have shrewdly sought for inspiration in the Spanish sphere without distinction of locality, and have produced an art of undoubted interest.

But apart from this there exists at the present time a movement of worldwide character, which seems to have a literary origin and which may, perhaps, be called, for want of a better name, the new spirit. Though still in a chaotic state, this movement, varied in its aspects, may in all lands be identified by an underlying intention to revolutionize everything, creating a new æsthetic code and turning its back on the past and on all tradition.

It is not our intention to deal with this movement or to discuss its importance. Spain does not appear to be the country best fitted to lead it. Its history seems to show that while it is ready of acceptance, it is not to be hurried in its advance; nor is it eager to seize upon radical ideas. But this notwithstanding, it has painters who understand and cultivate art of this kind, and it must not be forgotten that one of the outstanding figures in the ultramodern movement is the Spaniard Picasso, who has shown once more that in all phases of artistic effort the Spanish temperament significantly reveals itself.

A. DE BERUETE Y MORET.

(_Translated by Lewis Spence_)