Halls A, B, C and D in the Prado Museum’s Jerónimos Building will be hosting an exhibition from 21 May to 22 September 2024, which focuses on how the profound social changes that took place in Spain between 1885 and 1910 are reflected in art.
The most visible manifestation of these social changes is the emergence of social painting, which addresses these new themes in a naturalistic style (Rusiñol, Casas, Sorolla) or with a new expressiveness (Regoyos, Nonell, Picasso, Solana). This situation can also be found in other fields, such as sculpture and the graphic arts, which experienced a major boom. Through the use of photoengraving and phototypography, photography became the most objective and efficient means of disseminating the new images.
With the exclusive sponsorship of the BBVA Foundation and curated by Javier Barón, Head of Conservation of 19th Century Painting, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the artist’s interpretations of the great social transformation that took place in Spain between 1885 and 1910. After a long period in which history painting predominated as the main inspiration, social themes analyse the changes that took place in Spain during this period.
The exhibition is made up of almost 300 works, most of which have never been on display before, featuring different techniques and creative registers that illustrate the wide range of responses of artists to the challenge of representing the transformations taking place in the society of their day in aspects that had hardly been depicted in art up to that point, such as industrial and women’s work, education, illness and medicine, workplace accidents, prostitution, emigration, poverty and ethnic and social marginalisation, colonialism, strikes, anarchism and workers’ demonstrations.
It also addresses the diversity of interpretations of all the themes and the relationship between the techniques, such as photography, illustration and painting, and the crisis of the system of naturalistic representation following the triumph of its most notable exponents, such as the brothers, Luis and José Jiménez Aranda, Vicente Cutanda, Joaquín Sorolla, Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Casas.
Although the origins of this project lie in the importance of the Prado's collections of social painting, a reflection of the works created for presentation at the various National Fine Arts Exhibitions, the generosity of public and private lenders means that visitors can see major works by Regoyos, Sorolla, Nonell, Gargallo, Picasso, Gris and Solana, among other artists.
Image Credits:
- Vicente Cutanda y Toraya, Workers on Strike in Vizcaya (detail), 1892. © Prado National Museum
- A Hospital Ward during the Senior Doctor’s Visit</em>. Luis Jiménez Aranda. Oil on Canvas. 1889. Madrid, Prado National Museum, P-7342
- A Misfortune. José Jiménez Aranda. 1890. Oil on Canvas, 106 x 150 cm. Private Collection
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