Madrid - Art Gallery El Casón

Notable representatives of the Catalan school are Santiago Rusiñol (1861-1931), Ramón Casas (1866- 1932) and Isidro Nonell (1873-1911).

The historical painting so popular in the 19th C. is represented by works by Francisco Pradillo ("Dona Juana the Mad"), Antonio Gisbert ("Execution of Torrijos") and Antonio Muñoz Degrain ("Lovers of Teruel").

The influence of Impressionism is seen in the work of the highly gifted Mariano Fortuny (1838- 74: "Banks of the Guadaira", "Landscape", "The Painter's Children in the Japanese Saloon") and Eduardo Rosales (1836-73: "Nude"). Also represented are Aureliano Beruete, Darío Regoyos, Joaquín Mir and Joaquín Sorolla.

The artists of the Catalan school prepared the way and provided the models for the young Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Born in Málaga, Picasso lived briefly in Madrid, where he attended the San Fernando Academy of Art. He then went to Barcelona and came into contact with the Catalan Impressionists, frequenting the famous cafe Els Quatre Gats (The For Cats). From 1895 until his move to Paris in 1904 he remained in Barcelona.

Picasso's masterpiece must by the apocalyptic monumental picture "Guernica", which forms the high point of the Picasso collection in "El Casón". Its inspiration was the aftermath of the bombing attack of the German "Legion Condor" on the Basque town of Guernica on 26 Apri, 1937 which signalled the entry of the Luftwaffe into the Spanish Civil War on the side of Franco. The picture contains a hidden message of protest against the terror of war and fascism. Picasso painted it within the space of just a few days after the destruction of Guernica and it was originally intended for the Spanish pavilion of the exhibition "Exposition International des Arts et Techniques", which was held in 1937 in Paris. Because of a provision in Picasso's will, which bequeathed it to the "democratic" state of Spain, the picture hung until 1981 in the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Notable examples of the Spanish Realist school are a number of portraits by Federico Madrazo ("Carolina Coronado", "Federico Flores"), Leonardo Alenza and Vicente López ("Goya, aged 80", "The Court Organist Félix López").