Isidro Nonell

Acquired by the present owner circa 1989

Possibly Salon des Indépendants, 1904, no. I.776 (see label on the stretcher, inscribed Étude / Nonell-Monturiol / 50 rue Baja San Pedro / Barcelone)
Barcelona, Museu d'Art Modern MNAC, Isidro Nonell 1872-1911, 2000, no. 33, illustrated in the catalogue

Enric Jardí, Nonell, Barcelona, 1985, p. 78, no. 78, catalogued & illustrated
Faerna García-Bermejo, Isidro Nonell, Los Impresionistas y su época, Barcelona, 1995, no. 33, catalogued & illustrated

Original canvas. There are scattered flecks of infilling visible under ultraviolet light under an uneven varnish. Apart from scattered craquelure, notably to the hair of the figure, this work is in good condition, with rich colours. Held in a decorative, gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame.
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The present work depicts the lowered head of a gypsy woman with chromatic economy. The simplified motif, strong, dark colours and the close proximity of the sitter's head dominate the composition.

Nonell had turned exclusively to painting in oil in 1901, gypsies becoming his favourite subject matter. Painted from life, shown full length, seated or crouching and enveloped in shawls, their faces in profile or three-quarter turned, these disenfranchised figures seem to shrink back from the viewer.

While conservative critics disapproved of the gritty realism of Nonell's subjects, his daring thematic choices placed him at the forefront of Catalonia's Modernista movement (see note to lot 304).