CESÁREO BERNALDO DE QUIRÓS (Argentina, 1879 - 1968)
"Night landscape of Mallorca".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 77 x 97 cm; 93 x 111 cm (frame)
The sunset dyes the calm waters of the Mediterranean of an emerald mantle, intermingling the tones in marbled that absorb all the shades of the green. Beraldo de Quirós masterfully handles here the colors of the sunset, which in turn decompose the forms of the landscape, reducing them to the essential. Brief uninterrupted undulations shake the sea, making this vibrant universe pure reverberation.
One of the most outstanding Argentine painters of the first half of the twentieth century, Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós began painting at a very young age, and when he was only thirteen he left his native Gualeguay for Buenos Aires to begin his studies in the workshop of the Valencian artist Vicente Nicolau Cotanda. Three years later he entered the Academia de la Sociedad para el Estímulo de las Bellas Artes, where he had Ángel della Valle and Reynaldo Giudici as his main teachers. He was an outstanding student, which earned him the Rome Prize, a scholarship that allowed him to settle in the Italian capital at the age of twenty. There he perfected his language and began to make a name for himself, being awarded a mention at the Venice Biennale in 1901. Quirós took advantage of his stay in Europe to travel to Spain in 1905, where he met Zuloaga and Sorolla, and later also to Paris, Florence and Sardinia, to finally return to Argentina in 1906. There he founded the Nexus group together with Fernando Fader, Pío Collivadino, Carlos Ripamonte, Alberto Rossi and Justo Lynch. At the same time he continued to make his work known, and in 1910 he was awarded the Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the Centennial International Art Exhibition. This official exhibition would be the definitive consecration of Quirós, as evidenced by the fact that an entire room was dedicated to him. He later made another trip to Europe, where he stayed for five years. Upon his return, he moved to Entre Ríos, where he worked between 1916 and 1927 on a work centered on the figure of the gaucho, unprecedented in Argentine art to date. This series of works, which saw its reflection in contemporary literature, was presented in Buenos Aires in 1928, and from there he traveled, reaping success, to cities in Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the United States and Canada, in a tour that would last until 1936, when Quirós settled permanently in Paraná. Also during these years he carried out commissioned projects such as the murals for the Jockey Club of Rosario and the Ministry of the Army. He was also a professor at the National School of Decorative Arts, and became president of the National Academy of Fine Arts in Argentina. His works are currently held in the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Juan B. Castagnino Museum, among many others in Argentina and abroad, as well as in important private collections.
Measurements: 77 x 97 cm; 93 x 111 cm (frame)