This exceptional oil on board, painted between 1961 and 1962, is the artist’s second panoramic urban view of the city of Madrid, a type of composition he started to cultivate at the beginning of 1960 and which he would continue painting, with obvious variations, right up until the present moment.

All López’s views of Madrid during this period are very similar in construction, sharing two essential features: large dimensions and a high vantage point offering a dominant perspective of the city, underscoring its grandeur. Using an intentionally landscaped format, these views are clearly divided into two bands: an upper section reserved for the sky, devoid of other elements, and a lower one full of the city’s architectural structures. Depending on the time of day, the sky has pink, yellowish or blue tones, creating a meaningful play of shadows.

Until 1964, Antonio López’s works continued to flirt with what is known as , in this case exemplified by the inclusion of a couple of kissing lovers sitting on the top of a tree. They are in fact the painter himself and his wife and fellow painter, María Moreno (1933-2020). This impossible element is added to the composition as if it were something normal that could happen every day, providing a magical and unsettling touch to a scene in which the codes differentiating inside and outside are exchanged, facilitating the coexistence of the private and concealed with the public and exposed. These touches were added later in the studio before finalizing the painting, as was the olive branch to be seen in the foreground, which the artist had picked up in his hometown of Tomelloso, thus reinforcing the work’s endearing and intimate quality.

As Antonio López explained, this was his first commissioned work, when he was just twenty-five years old. It was entrusted to him by Banco de Vizcaya to decorate one of its new branches in Madrid, in Plaza de Felipe II. This was quite unusual at the time, as commissioned paintings were generally of a religious nature or portraits immortalizing important individuals; which is why these “portraits of Madrid”, as the artist calls them, were so innovative.

López painted this work in the studio of his fellow artist Esperanza Nuere (1935), who lived on the top floor of a building in Calle Serrano which offered views over the Archaeology Museum, a particularly significant building, which he painted with extraordinary dedication. Executing these views involves a painstakingly long and laborious process because it requires natural light, which obviously changes depending on the time of day and the season, forcing the artist to work in a very limited time frame, even at twilight or while snowing, as he recalls, protecting himself from the cold with a heavy cloak his wife had made especially for him. Once the painting was finished, it went on view at Galería Biosca after which it entered the holdings of Banco de Vizcaya, and is now one of the preeminent works in the BBVA Collection.