Hermenegildo Anglada-Camarasa Barcelona 1871-Pollensa 1959

La Pinacoteca, Barcelona
Private Collection, Barcelona (purchased from the above in 1928)
Acquired by the present owner from the above in the 1990s

Original canvas. There are no signs of retouching visible under ultraviolet light, only some minor traces of discoloured varnish, notably to the faces of the gypsies. Apart from some scattered spots of retouching, notably to the lower lip of the mother and the eyes and hair of the baby, this work is good condition with bright colours and strong impasto. Held in a decorative, gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame with a light brown velvet slip.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted in 1925, the present work is an outstanding example of Anglada-Camarasa's departure from his early depictions of gitanas as the colourfully exotic denizens of the gaudy music halls and cafés-concerts of Paris. From 1907 Anglada-Camarasa began to paint his gitanas in a softer, more vulnerable light, accompanied by small children. Blossoming, vibrant flowers encircle the figures of mother and child, with a new luminous palette highlighting this allegory of motherhood.

Plaintive yet passionate, earthy yet full of grace, the Spanish gitana has been all but synonymous with Spain since her kinsfolk first landed on Iberia's shores in the fifteenth century from as far afield as India. The Spanish came to revere but also fear gypsies because of their nomadic way of life and the freedoms it seemed to allow. For some three hundred years, they were persecuted, their settlements broken up, their language and rituals denied them. Yet, paradoxically, the hardship they endured nurtured a whole subculture most nobly embodied by dance and the flamenco.

By the nineteenth century, Spain had embraced Gypsy myth and lore. The Romantics were in awe of the gypsies for their otherworldliness and seeming ability to commune with nature, while the following generation of artists and writers, driven by patriotism in the wake of Spain's colonial losses, venerated the gypsy as the quintessential icon of Spanish identity. Nonell, Zuloaga, and Solana were among Anglada's contemporaries who endowed the gitana with a gravitas, at times playful, at times austere, that linked her inextricably with Spain's psyche.