PAUL SIGNAC AND PAINTING IN FRANCE, BELGIUM AND SPAIN AROUND 1900
REGOYOS, Darío de (Ribadesella, 1857 – Barcelona, 1913)
Landscape at Hernani
c. 1900
Oil sobre canvas, 50 x 61 cm
Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza
Landscape at Hernani depicts a partial panoramic view of Hernani. To its right, but not included here, would be the city’s historic quarter, while in the foreground on the left one can see the old bridge and behind it Mount Adarra, still with snow on it, allowing us to date the place the painting in winter.
The work reveals Regoyos at the height of his career, bringing all his mastery to bear on this winter scene, in which the dusk is perfectly rendered on the buildings and in the reddened shadows that characterise many paintings. As was normal in his compositions, the human figure forms an inseparable part of the landscape. However, in the present work, as in the scenes of the La España negra series, it is only women who are represented, and are generally seen working. Regoyos always depicted the Basque woman as a working and often solitary figure.
In the present composition (executed from a certain height above the ground) the horizontal lines are used distribute the pictorial space, while the diagonal lines also assist in the composition. Regoyos achieved depth in the landscape by graduating the mauve, brown and green tones. In this way he obtained a perfect impression of the light and the landscape, which is completed by a sky filled with small masses of clouds that filter the sunlight onto the mountains, thus achieving a perfecting impression of the specific moment depicted.
It is not known whether this painting was exhibited during the artist’s lifetime, but this does not seem likely as the work’s title does not appear on the stretcher nor do any labels with numbers or specific information that would testify to its having been shown in public. It is possible that it passed into the hands of one of artist’s friends soon after being painted. It was later with the Salon Delclaux, where it was bought on 28 January 1920 by its previous owner, as indicated on the purchase invoice.
Juan San Nicolás
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