European & British Art
European & British Art
Property of a European Private Collector
Santiago Rusiñol
The Generalife Gardens, Granada
Lot Closed
December 9, 02:28 PM GMT
Estimate
70,000 - 100,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property of a European Private Collector
Santiago Rusiñol
Spanish
1861 - 1931
The Generalife Gardens, Granada
signed S. Rusiñol lower left
oil on canvas
Unframed: 99 by 68cm., 39 by 26¾in.
Framed: 115 by 84cm., 45¼ by 33in.
Ilustració Catalana, 21 June 1903, Barcelona, p. 42 (as Jardí)
Santiago Rusiñol, Jardins d’Espanya, Barcelona, 1903, illustrated (as Arquitectura verda/ Arquitectura verde)
Vittorio Pica, 'Artisti contemporanei: Santiago Rusiñol, in Emporium, XXI, March 1905, p. 182, illustrated (as Architettura verde)
Georges Riat, 'Jardins d'Espagne', in Art et Décoration, 1904, p. 98
L'Esquella de la Torratxa, 6 June 1913, Barcelona, pp. 400-01, illustrated
Santiago Rusiñol, Jardins d’Espanya, Barcelona, 1914, illustrated (as Arquitectura verda/ Arquitectura verde)
Santiago Rusiñol, Jardins d’Espanya, Barcelona, 1925, illustrated (as Arquitectura verda/ Arquitectura verde)
Eliseu Trenc Ballester, 'Santiago Rusiñol: del realismo al simbolismo', in Estudios Pro Arte, Barcelona, 1976, p. 72, illustrated
Heidi Johanna Roch, Santiago Rusiñol (1861-1931). Ein Beitrag zur Kunst des augehenden 19 Jhs. in Katalonien, Frankfurt am Main, 1983, fig. 57
Isabel Col i Mirabent, S. Rusiñol, Ausa, 1992, p. 142, illustrated (circa 1897-1900)
Josep de Calassanç Laplana, Santiago Rusiñol, el pintor, l'home, Montserrat, 1995, no. 16.9, catalogued
Josep de C. Laplana & Mercedes Palau-Ribes O'Callaghan, La pintura de Santiago Rusiñol. Obra completa, Barcelona, 2004, vol. III, p. 164. no. 16.3.6 (dated 1898, as whereabouts unknown)
Paris, L'Art Nouveau, Les Jardins d'Espagne de SantiagoRusiñol, 1899;
Barcelona, Sala Parés, Santiago Rusiñol. Jardins d'Espanya, 1900.
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Paris, L'Art Nouveau, Les Jardins d'Espagne de Santiago Rusiñol, 1899 ;
Barcelone, Sala Parés, Santiago Rusiñol. Jardins d'Espanya, 1900.
The Generalife gardens adjacent to the Alhambra were built during the reign of Muhammad III (1302-1309) and used as a country estate and summer palace of the Nasrid sultans of Granada. Its grounds contain of one of the oldest surviving Moorish gardens. Rusiñol's fascination with The Generalife began with his first visit to the Alhambra in Granada in 1887, after which ornate fountains, cypress trees, and spectacular topiaries reminiscent of Moorish architecture would dominate his paintings.
Wherever he travelled in Spain - whether to Granada, Mallorca, or La Granja - Rusiñol fell under the spell of plants and trees variously shaped by human hand, drawn to them as expressions of the traditions of the regions of Spain but also by their enigmatic forms. In 1903 he published an album of prints titled Jardins d’Espanya, combining prints of most of the works exhibited at the eponymous 1899 Paris exhibition with modernist poems by some of the most acclaimed poets of the time. His thoughts on the garden are most lyrically articulated in his elegiac poem El jardí abandonat of 1899, in which the garden comes to symbolise both Spain's proud past and its fading glory following its defeat in the 1898 Spanish–American War.