SPANISH PAINTING
IN THE INDUSTRIAL AGE 1800-1900
versión en español
Spanish Painting in the Industrial Age 1800-1900
This exhibition includes more than 40 unique works painted in the 19th century by some of the most
important Spanish artists. The paintings, from both private and public collections, were selected by the
curator Juan Carlos Rubio Aragonés. The restauration of a large number of works, the majority of them
unknown to the general public, was made possible thanks to the support of the Foundation.
The railway and iron bridges, steamships and the first water mains, fluvial and maritime ports, smoking
factories, small businesses, interiors of bodegas and pickling factories as well as technological inventions
such as the submarine or the dirigible were all subjects which the romantic and realist artists undertook
with considerable interest and which ultimately changed the way they painted. However they also painted
the other side of the coin: the riots, the work-related accidents, the industrial catastrosphies, the labour
conditions of women and children, etc...
The exhibition includes original oil paintings by Mariano Sánchez, Domingo Gallego, Gabriel Planella,
Pérez Villaamil, Antonio de Brugada, Eugenio Lucas, Fortuny, Fedriani, Regoyos, Martínez Abades,
Alpériz, Arteta, Larroque, Tellaeche, García Asarta, Uría, Pla, Zuloaga, Sorolla and Vázquez Díaz as well
as other painters, perhaps less well known to the general public, whose work has been recuperated for this
occasion. All the works are representative of the relationship between 19th century painting and what is
known as the industrial revolution.
The exhibition considers the importance of understanding the evolution of Spanish painting starting with
the end of the 1700s, in order to survey, with the progressive speed which the steam engine and then
electricity has allowed, the changes produced in Spanish society right up until the resulting irruption of the
vanguard at the beginning of this century.
From May 13 to July 25, 1998 in the Temporary Halls of the Art and Technology Foundation.
Click on paintings to see enlargements
The 1800s was a century
of paramount importance in
Spain's political, social,
ecomonic and cultural
history. The material and
spiritual changes introduced
into Spanish life were
momentous. We could say
that the artistic development
of many Spanish regions
was iniciated in the 19th
century and that especially
in the case of painting, even
reached a high level.
However only when
industrialization started to
affect the land on which
they lived and to populate
its cities did the sumptuary
appear. This was the time of
trains but it was also the
time when museums and
artists developed the fine
arts system which continues
today, one which was once
and for all liberated from
the monarchic and
ecclesiastical powers which
had exercized control over
it since the Middle Ages.
The rise of a new class of
patrons and collectors as a
consequence of the birth of
the banks and great modern
industrial powers coincided
with the first theories of art
for art's sake, the
appearance of exhibitions,
galleries, dealers, critics and
a new public ready to share
the experience of beauty in
a modern sense of the word.
"Pounding time at the
Duro-Felguera Factory"
José Uría y Uría, 1861-1937
1899. Oil on canvas. 126 x 200 cm.
Private Collection. Gijón.
"The inauguration of the water supply
from Lozoya to Madrid"
Eugenio Lucas Velázquez, 1817-1870
1858. Oil on canvas. 110 x 140 cm.
Private Collection. Madrid.
The exhibition presents
significant examples which
help in the understanding of
the evolution of Spanish
painting. First rate pictorial
representations of railways,
steamships, gas lighting,
water mains, telegraph or
telephone wires, textile
industries and iron
suspension bridges.... but
also mock naval battles halfway between the
exaltation of patriotic
sentiment and pure
spectacle for the masses scenes of work and of social
unrest, votive pictures
commemorating accidents.
By combining the work of
important artists together
with that of lesser known
painters, some of whose
work has been restaured
especially for this occasion,
we hope to show how the
subject of industrialization
enjoyed an authentic
prestige among many
artists, whether they
interpreted it through
documentary illustrations or
through expressions tinged
by a pessimistic lyricism on
some occasions and an
exalted euphoria on others.
The process that populated
the Spanish landscape with
gargantuan manifestations
of industry was greeted by a
whole range of artistic
reactions, some of rejection
in search of comfort in a
bucolic past, others of
escape into a melancholic
refuge in search of simple
and humble folk living an
intimate relationship with a
pastoral surrounding
uncorrupted by the
advances of civilization. All
"From San Fernando to Cádiz"
Tomás Fedriani y Ramírez (mid-1800s)
1874. Oil on canvas. 80 x 130 cm.
Private collection, Madrid
"Bodega La Constancia, Jerez"
Domingo García y Díaz (mid-1800s)
1858. Oil on canvas. 96 x 111 cm.
González Byass S.A. Collection. Jerez de la Frontera.
of them, nevertheless, were
a reflection of their time, an
artistic time which was
transformed from top to
bottom in the vital timetable
of one century.
Spanish romanticism
applied its own semantic
universe in the treatment of
the industrial age: going
from the mythological to a
regional flavour, from the
technical to the religious, it
developed a wide catalogue
of registers in order to leave
its often times inspired
mark as a reference point
for future generations of
painters. At the same time,
blazing the way towards
realism and the
documentary through a
direct observation of life,
the paintings capturing local
manners and customs many
times touched on burning
questions of society and
even put forth a certain
ideology connected to the
values of regional
sentiments.
There are very few Spanish
paintings which show
representations of machines
for their own sake although there were, and we
have included some of them
in this show - as it was more
commom to see work
scenes where the machine is
part of the scenery or cause
of the accident... The
originality of some painters
lead them towards
experiments with light and
colour along the lines of the
European impressionist
tendencies, and these works
make up the last chapter of
this exhibition: the
symbolism of the industrial
age had achieved a
"Accident in the port of Barcelona"
Anonymous, 1860s
Oil on fabric. 59 x 88 cm.
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, (Museu d'Art Modern).
sophisticated level with the
perfect integration of
powerful machines into the
landscape, in a dense
dialogue of industrial fumes
and passing clouds,
preparing the way so that
the pictorial vanguard could
come in and directly
plunder the reflective metal
structures of the majestic
industrial constructions. The
factory, omnipresent in the
19th century landscape,
changed its tired steam
engine - blackened and
spent because of its constant
use of coal and carbon
minerals - for an efficient
hydroelectric force that
would come to dominate the
panorama of energy for a
large part of the 20th
century.
Juan Carlos Rubio
Aragonés
(catalog excerpt)
http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/eindustri.html