MEADOWS MUSEUM ACQUIRES PAINTING BY MARTIN RICO

Written by Omar Charafeddine Saturday, 31 December 2011 21:41

 

DALLAS (SMU), TEXAS - The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University announced that it has acquired Rio San Trovaso, Venice, a significant work by the great Spanish plein-air painter Martín Rico (1833-1908). The painting, an oil on canvas that measures 25-3/4 x 39-1/2 inches, is signed by the artist and was painted around 1900. It was purchased at auction from Sotheby’s in New York on April 18, with funds donated by The Meadows Foundation, and will go on permanent display at the Meadows Museum.

During the last decades of the 19^th century, Rico was one of Spain’s most important, innovative and internationally admired landscape painters. He presented his works in the Salons and the Universal Expositions, and his paintings were acquired by such prominent European and American collectors as Collis Potter Huntington, William T. Walters and Henry Clay Frick.

His style combined academic technique with Impressionistic attention to the effects of light. His interest in working outdoors directly from nature, instead of in a studio, defied many of the standards of the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, where he studied during his youth. In 1862 he received a prestigious grant to travel to Paris to learn more modern approaches to landscape painting. Thereafter until his death, Rico was primarily active outside of Spain. He painted lively urban landscapes of historic Spanish cities, languid scenes of the Seine and the Marne rivers, and dramatic panoramic views of Paris. However, he is mainly known for his depictions of Venice. The rich baroque architecture and busy pace of Venetian urban life provided him with a host of details to depict, while the clear skies and brilliant, luminous reflections of the Adriatic Sea provided the dancing light and shadow he so effectively captured in paint.

Rio San Trovaso, Venice is one of the most monumental and important canvases in Rico’s body of work. The scene documents daily life in Venice at the turn of the 20th century. The “rio,” or river, runs through the intimate neighborhood of Dorsoduro and connects the Gran Canal with the River Ognissanti. Spanning the river’s width in the foreground is the Ponte di San Trovaso (San Trovaso Bridge), and in the background is the Ponte delle Maravegie (The Marvels Bridge). Opting not to include the famous eighth-century church of San Trovaso in his composition, Rico instead depicts the animated daily life of the city, with gondolas and fishing boats navigating the river, women promenading, a man feeding birds and a woman bathing a child. A total of 31 characters appear in the composition.

“We are thrilled to have acquired this important work, which has allowed us to fill a major gap in our collection, both in our 19th-century holdings and in the landscape genre,” said Dr. Mark Roglán, director of the Meadows Museum. “This painting is especially important because it is one of the most ambitious compositions Rico ever created. It is a late work in the artist’s career, and is unusual because of its large size; Rico generally preferred painting in a small format, almost as a skilled miniaturist, a characteristic of his work that was repeatedly praised by his critics. Our museum founder Algur H. Meadows acquired paintings by two of Rico’s closest colleagues and friends, Mariano Fortuny and Raimundo de Madrazo. With this magnificent example of Rico’s work, paintings by these three important Spanish cosmopolitan artists can be on display together at the Meadows Museum. We are most grateful to The Meadows Foundation for last year’s historic gift, which has allowed the Meadows Museum to strengthen its collection through acquisitions.”

The Meadows Museum houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, with works dating from the 10^th to the 21^st century. It includes masterpieces by some of the world’s greatest painters: El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Miró and Picasso. Highlights of the collection include Renaissance altarpieces, monumental Baroque canvases, exquisite rococo oil sketches, polychrome wood sculptures, Impressionist landscapes, modernist abstractions, a comprehensive collection of the graphic works of Goya and a select group of sculptures by major 20^th-century masters. The museum is located at 5900 Bishop Blvd. on the SMU campus. . For more information, please visit the museum’s Web site at www.meadowsmuseumdallas.org, or call 214.768.2516.

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