Isidre Nonell looking at Goya

The Goya and Invited Art Halls at the Lázaro Galdiano Museum will host an exhibition from 18 November to 18 January 2026 that establishes a dialogue between two artists more than a century apart, but united by a common vision and way of understanding of painting. A selection of the most significant pieces by the more intimate Nonell can be seen alongside works by Goya held by the Museum:  The Witches' Sabbath or The Witches, among others.

This exhibition highlights an ethical and existential affinity and the same sensitivity towards the marginal and the tragic compared with the aesthetic and moral conventions of their eras. It includes significant pieces from the most intimate facet of Isidre Nonell, such as five drawings with his unique finish and distressed colour, known as “fregit,” and seven oil paintings, including the first portraits of gypsy women.

It has been more than 20 years since there has been such an opportunity in Madrid to observe the work of Isidre Nonell (1872-1911), which has hardly ever been exhibited in the city and only certain collections have one of his paintings. The seven oil paintings and five drawings by Isidre Nonell belonging to the Casacuberta Marsans Collection form an illustrative group of this artist's counter-cultural approach. They are all significant pieces that represent the artist's bravest and most intimate time, which the private collection from Barcelona will be displaying for the first time in Madrid. 

Paintings by Goya (1747-1828) from the Lázaro Galdiano Museum’s collection will also be on display, creating a literal and symbolic encounter.  It is an invitation for the public to "discover how the echo of the painter from Aragon lurks in the modernity of the painter from Catalonia", according to the museum's director, Begoña Torres, one of the exhibition's curators. 

Image Credits:

• Isidre Nonell: Wake (Funeral Chapel), 1896. Mixed technique on paper (fregit). Casacuberta Marsans Collection
• Isidre Nonell: Gypsy, 1901. Oil on cloth. Casacuberta Marsans Collection
• Francisco de Goya: The Witches’ Sabbath, 1797 - 1798. Oil on canvas based on a fresco.
• 43 cm × 30 cm. Lázaro Galdiano Museum
• Francisco de Goya: The Witches, 1798. Oil on canvas based on a fresco. Lázaro Galdiano Museum