Daniel Vázquez Díaz

(Nerva, Huelva, 1882 – Madrid, 1969)

Window over Portugal

ca. 1922-1923

oil on canvas

73.2 x 56 cm

Inv. no. P00162

BBVA Collection Spain



Vázquez Díaz was a key figure in the renewal of Basque painting. He paved the way for many local artists who would go on to create a new language grounded in a personal interpretation of
, as one can appreciate in this particular painting, a good example of how the painter manages to merge tradition and modernity.

The knowledge of the historical avant-garde movements, that the artist had acquired during his stay in Paris, and his contact with post-
starting in 1918 once he had returned to Madrid and engaged with its cultural scene, meant that the works from this period maintained the vanguardist colour and the superimposition of shapes; a “geometrical-constructive figuration”, as some experts have labelled it.

The arrival of Vázquez Díaz to Portugal in 1922 was to become one of the most important events of the season for the country’s art scene, and he exhibited his works in Lisbon, Porto, and Coimbra. In addition to becoming acquainted with the Futurist group in the country, the artist discovered the local light and colour, which he would capture in his work. From this time there came the series Windows of Portugal and Scenes of Portugal, works that were luminist in style.

This canvas belongs to the first of the two series mentioned above, in which there are several works that are very similar to one another. Here there is a fishbowl in the foreground, and a landscape with basic constructions, that can be seen through the window, is developed in almost pyramidal tiers, where the only natural elements that the artist has maintained are the palm trees. Worth noting is that the inclusion of a window in the composition is a recurrent device in the work of Vázquez Díaz, be it as the starting point for the composition or as a background element that brings depth and light to the piece.

The architectural shapes are reduced to their outlines, even the openings in their walls have been done away with. They are rendered directly in the landscape but also through the fishbowl glass, turning into synthetic colour planes, an approach that indicates the influence of
. In this urban, deserted, melancholy landscape devoid of human figures, the light is the central focus. The highly refined cool tones of the bluish palette that he had already been using in his Basque landscapes lend the composition a subtlety and sensibility that verge on the ethereal.