Spanish Woman on the Street

Ignacio Zuloaga

Basic information

ID: Ж-3954
Author: Ignacio Zuloaga
Name: Spanish Woman on the Street
Date of creation: c.1910
Country: Spain
Culture: Western Europe
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 106 x 87.5

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: narrative art
Plot: Spanish woman on the street
Provenance: Handed over to the Gallery in 1963
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Ignacio Zuloaga
Artist's lifetime: 1870–1945
Country: Spain
Biography: Ignacio Zuloaga (1870–1945) was a Spanish artist. He studied at the Eugène Carrière Academy in Paris and the Rome Academy. Auguste Rodin was his friend with whom he corresponded regularly. Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and Maurice Utrillo were also among his acquaintances. Ignacio Zuloaga was married to a French woman but did not lose ties with his homeland. The artist constantly turned to Spanish themes and continued Spanish artistic traditions in his works. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the art of Ignacio Zuloaga developed thematically within the outlined directions set by leading artists from the so-called "generation of 98". The master's works represented bullfighters, dancers, gipsy women, pilgrims, beggars, dwarfs, and witches; the hard work and entertainment of the Spaniards; landscapes of Madrid, Segovia, Seville, and the Basque Country, etc. The admiration of the art of El Greco, Diego Velázquez and Francisco Goya resulted in a close perception of French Impressionism and European artistic trends at the beginning of the 20th century. The impressionistic fixation of the moment, reproduced in combination with the linear and ornamental techniques of Secession, elements of Symbolism and the pictorial freedom of Expressionism, established the foundation that determined the style of the artist's works.

Object description

In the "Spanish Woman" painting, the compositional and colouristic centrepiece is the figure of a brightly dressed young woman with roses in her hair, a multi-coloured shawl on her shoulders and a fan in her hand – attributes perceived as symbols of exotic Spain. It is only later that the eye notices two indistinct figures in simple work clothes, depicted against the background of an ordinary house, behind which an overcast landscape opens up. In Ignacio Zuloaga's painting, the low, ashy grey sky hanging over the indistinct outlines of the mountains creates an atmosphere not only of mysterious twilight but also of hopelessness and tragic sadness.

Inscriptions

In the bottom left is the author's signature: Ignacio Zuloaga

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Spanish Woman on the Street

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