Museo Carmen Thyssen

Of several landscapes identified with the watercourse at Argentona and with a similar composition to this picture from the Carmen Thyssen Málaga Collection, two in particular stand out: one was included in the monographic exhibition held in Barcelona in 1941 (no. 115, Semir Collection) and the other was presented at the Sala Parés, Barcelona, at the end of January 1962 (no. 5). The three could be dated around the same period – particularly bearing in mind the rendering of the sky and the trees, as well as the date – which corresponds to the 1870s. The obvious balance between the precise outlines of the clouds and of the greenery, on the one hands and, on the other, the masterly interpretation of the movement of the wind and the hues appropriately chosen by the artist to represent the radiance of the landscape, all combine to date this painting exactly. Yet some of the brushstrokes around the path and the land to the left of the stream do not seem to be entirely consistent with the technique used in the rest of the painting. The size of the central figures in the composition indicates the scale of the landscape and its grandeur. The artist quite rightly used to say: “You need to know geometry to paint landscapes.”

Maria Teresa Guasch