- 01. Idealised Nature. Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
- 02. Nineteenth-century American Landscape
- 03. Between Romanticism and Realism: Spanish Landscape
- 04. The Renewal of Landscape Painting in France
- 05. The Legacy of Impressionism
Paradises and Landscapes in the Carmen Thyssen Collection. From Brueghel to Gauguin
31 March - 7 October 2012
Landscape with Cattle near a River, 1859
Óleo sobre lienzo, 82.3 x 115.4 cm CTB.1995.41Several cows graze in the surroundings at the foot of a mountain range which can be discerned in the distance, and they approach the calm, clean backwaters of a river in order to drink.
This attractive landscape is a beautiful instance of the great master Carlos de Haes’ early work, in which one can still recognize important leftovers of his Late Romantic academic education. The different elements that form the landscape are positioned in an orderly and perfectly balanced manner. They are bathed in the golden light of sunset and instill a serene and bucolic sense of nature in perfect harmony, even though the work was artificially composed in the artist’s studio, most probably from sketches from nature, with a precise and meticulous technique and with special attention to all details. Nevertheless, as much in the treatment of the animals as in the reflections in the water, in the shades in the vegetation, and in the sky, there are already signs of the direct observation of nature which characterized the artist’s mature work. In some fragments he even allowed himself a certain looseness of execution, which is spontaneous and succulent overall, even if it is still attenuated, finished, smooth surfaces and delicate shadings. De Haes demonstrates his very strong sensitivity in rendering the infinite hues of the twilight over the landscape, a point of pride in all his work.
On the other hand, the painting proves the decisive influence of Flemish and Dutch landscape painting in de Haes’ early work, not only that of his contemporaries but especially that of the great Baroque masters of the genre whom the artist could have studied during his journey through Europe in those years. In fact, the importance given to the sky, which occupies the whole upper half of the canvas, the predominance of earth-colors and ochre, and the central role played by the trees, which are positioned on different planes in conjunction with lines to the vanishing point (in order to give the landscape a panoramic depth it loses only in the distance of the mountains touched by the clouds), are all resources that proceed from seventeenth-century Flemish and Dutch landscape painting and which de Haes made good use of on this occasion. These traits are also easily detectable in other very similar landscapes, such as Landscape with River (Paisaje con río), signed in 1858 and of an almost identical size to this one.
As it was painted shortly after de Haes’ return to Spain from his European journey, this painting could be the same as the one that Carlos de Haes presented at the 1860 National Exhibition under the title of A Country. Belgium (Un país. Bélgica) together with the work titled A Landscape. Memories of Andalusia, Mediterranean Coast, close to Torremolinos (Un país. Recuerdos de Andalucía, costa del Mediterráneo, junto a Torremolinos), which is kept at the Prado Museum and which shows very similar aesthetic ideas. Both works still have their original—and identical—frames.
José Luis Díez
