José Gutiérrez Solana Madrid 1886-1945

Valero Collection, Madrid
Manuel Camacho, Madrid
Luis Miguel González Lucas "Dominguin", Madrid
Galería Theo, Madrid
Purchased from the above by the present owner in 1969

Nine folk dancers, hands and bodies rhythmically interwoven in solemn communion, are memorialised in Solana’s Baile de los chulos con guirnaldas, a monumental manifestation of the artist’s passionate yearning to re-establish a sense of national pride among the Spanish people.

Solana’s subjects were drawn from the customs and people he had grown up with in Madrid and Santander. Like the work of the other members of the Generación del 98 to which he belonged, Solana's paintings at once lament Spain's isolation from Europe in the wake of her colonial losses, and exude a patriotic conviction in the country's social and cultural re-birth.

The figures in Baile de los chulos are not protected by the macabre masks or presented as the generic types that populate so much of Solana’s oeuvre (see lot 139), but are recognisable members of a working-class community, brought together in modest celebration. The clothes of the dancers are contemporary, the animated colours and polka dots lending themselves to the artist’s broad brushstrokes and inclination for bold contrasts, elements that reverberate with the art of El Greco (see lot 145). Solana’s brush accords each of these ordinary individuals, as well as the commonplace activity of a village dance, historical importance and solemnity, equal in size and stature to any history painting. Solana and the members of the Generación del 98 envisaged the resolution of their country’s political and social struggles, of which Spanish culture and tradition would be an integral part, being instigated by those at the grass roots level such as the subjects in the present work.

In Solana's study for the present work, virtually all the figures engage with the viewer. In this final version, however, only the two female protagonists and the single man holding the ceremonial ribbons invite the spectator's participation. The other figures either look away or turn their back. Locked in their own thoughts, their enigmatic presence contrasts with the frontality of their dancing partners.