Exhibitions

Delacroix (1798 - 1863)
Caixa Forum Madrid / 19.10.2011 - 15.1.2012 / Free / Official website (includes a virtual tour)

Self portrait (1837)
Oil on canvas, Louvre.

Eugène Delacroix, the stereotypical Romanticist painter -rejected yet admired by the Paris Salon, his bold use of colour, highly dramatic scenes and great imagination defined the generations to come- is honoured in his largest retrospective in Spain and one of this year's most exciting shows.

Furious Medea (1838)
Oil on canvas,
Palais de Beaux Arts, Lille

This exhibition is organized chronologically according to Delacroix's ouvre: a classic dandy self-portrait starts the collection (left), followed by the artist's first academic years (look out for the tender model Aspasie) and a selection of portraits dominated by the dashing Louis Auguste Scwitter (on loan from London's National Gallery). The middle section encompasses Delacroix's mature Romantic works, those that brought him fame and are now the stars of the show: the monumental Greece on the ruins of Missolonghi exemplifies the liberal -albeit sentimental- views of Romanticism and an oil sketch of the famous The Death of Sardanapalus shows his brisk, innovative use of colour. Another highlight is The Women of Algiers, a large canvas coming all the way from the Louvre, executed during the artist's visit to Northern Africa. Other recurring, typically Romantic themes are also explored, including literature (Byron heroes and Hamlet, especially), religion and mythology -the tempestous Furious Medea is unmissable too, my favourite at the exhibition. The show ends with Delacroix's almost impressionistic landscapes and the swirls of colour and action of his Hunts series.     

Seated Arab (1832)
Chalk on paper
British Museum

The best...  It's free! Over 100 works from all over the world -some exclusively lent by France and the USA- are gathered at the biggest Delacroix retrospective since 1963, offering a rare oppurtunity to see his whole artistic career. Do not miss his oil studies, the lively crayon sketches from his North African travels and the illustrations for Goethe's Faust -because great artists also doodle. Probably the best exhibition in Madrid right now and a total must-see.

The worst...  It's free, so the small, narrow rooms are easily and very quickly crowded, but being quite a large place, it's not too difficult to get away from the throngs of visitors.

Masterpiece of the Month

The Adoration of the Kings (1564)
Pieter bruegel The Elder (c.1535 - 1569). Oil on oak, 111 x 83 cm. The National Gallery, London.

 An old manger, its beams bent with age, with a donkey inside eating hay, and the Virgin Mary at the centre with her characteristic blue mantle... But isn't there something wrong in this Nativity scene?  Why does baby Jesus recoil into his mother's lap?  And why are there soldiers at a time of peace and joy?

  Bruegel lived in a plague-ridden, war torn Europe, and many of his paintings reflect this dark time, denouncing its atrocities and injustice - the soldiers crowding on the left may represent the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands (the pointed halberds echo Velazquez's The Surrender of Breda), but may also act as a warning of Christ's Passion, brought about by greed. The same greed shown in the helmeted knight's curious eyes, or the surprise of the man with the spectacles; even Joseph (looking more like a drunk, tramp Santa Claus) has fallen to gossip and offers a distrustful, sideways glance to the Kings. Meanwhile, The Wise Men seem oblivious of it, offering their gifts the newborn Saviour, who tries to hide at the sight of what looks like myyrh, used for embalming bodies - once more, Bruegel references the Passion.

Or has Jesus sensed the greed, envy and jealousy He causes? Greed, by the way, that continues to fuel our Christmas spirit...

                                                               

 Bruegel's grotesque caricatures appear even in the holiest of moments, highlighting the lowest insincts of humanity.

Artist of the Month

Pieter Bruegel The Elder (Breughel, c.1525 - Brussels, 1569)
Flemish painter and printmaker

The Painter and the Buyer (c.1565)
Pen and ink on paper

 Peasants, sometimes mocked in merciless caricatures and others as foolish victims of sin, are the protagonists of Bruegel's works. He developed such an interest in them that it is said he disguised himself as one and attended weddings, so as to keep record and create more believable works, earning him the nickname "Peasant Bruegel" 

 We know little about Pieter's life: born around 1525, somewhere near the Flemish town of Breda (probably Breughel). He traveled to France and Italy and returned to Antwerp in 1551, becoming master in a painter's guild. Continuous travels between Italy and the (then) Netherlands influenced his themes, becoming more socially oriented. Finally settled in Brussels some ten years later, where he died. He began a lenghty dynasty of painters: his two children, Jan and Pieter, developed a more Baroque taste for landscapes, and Jan's son also became a painter (Jan the Younger); but they all lacked the critical eye of their forefather.

Netherlandish Proverbs (1559)
Oil on panel, 117 x 163cm,
Staatliche Museen, Berlin 

 Enormously influenced by Bosch - like all Dutch artists at the time- his early large-scale works are chaotic and full of detail (like Netherlandish Proverbs, right), demons and fantastical creatures abound but without the first-time originalty of Bosch. His later style (from Brussels) is more calm, focusing on peasants and faithfully depicting their way of life with a subtle humour that emphasizes human foolishness, making his themes strikingly recognizable in our own days...