Hermenegildo Anglada-Camarasa

Francesc Cambó (1876-1947), Barcelona

Guardans-Cambó collection, Barcelona, by 1981

Francesc Fontbona and Francesc Miralles, Anglada-Camarasa: catalogue raisonné, Barcelona, 1981, p. 182, cat. no. 349, illustrated in colour p. 183, catalogued and illustrated p. 278, no. D136

Painted circa 1935, Pines By the Shore was inspired by the dramatic pink rock formations in the Boquer valley on the Formentor peninsula, outside Port Pollença. Anglada was drawn to the valley time and again to paint, and its hills and rocks were central to the artist's work during his first Mallorcan period (1914-36).

After establishing his career among the avant-garde circles of Paris, Anglada decided to return to Spain in search of a quieter life, settling in Port Pollença in 1914. Here he turned away from figural painting to a contemplation of the landscape, developing a progressive and experimental rather than a realistic style. Anglada's move to Mallorca also coincided with a fundamental change in his technique. Colour remained his primary concern, however he moved away from the use of glazes, instead applying paint thickly on to the canvas directly from the tube, and developing in the process an array of striking colour combinations.

The fruits of Anglada's textural and chromatic experimentation are strikingly evident in the present work. The mixtures of colour and tonalities in the surface of the rocks and the crowns of the trees, combined with the serpentine trunks of the pines, form rythmic patterns, animating the landscape and giving it a remarkable life-like presence.

Anglada's fascination with the natural wonders of Mallorca was no doubt inspired by the work of other artists who had been active on the island before him, notably fellow Catalan Joaquín Mir and the Belgian symbolist painter William Degouve de Nuncques, both of whom used bright colours to capture its most dramatic and often remote geological features.