Daniel Vázquez Díaz

(Nerva, Huelva, 1882 – Madrid, 1969)

Ventana de La Rábida (Window of La Rábida)

ca. 1929

oil on canvas

68.8 x 59.8 cm

Inv. no. P01192

BBVA Collection Spain



Daniel Vázquez Díaz played an instrumental role in introducing the avant-gardes in the Basque Country. Throughout his career he painted many landscapes seen from windows, a frequent theme in French paintings that he knew well after his long sojourn in Paris. In fact, he had done some landscapes viewed from his window overlooking the river Bidasoa already (1918), and in his series Windows of Portugal (1922-23), and he had also included windows, with their corresponding landscapes, in the background of some of his indoor compositions, such as La muerte del torero (1912), Rubén Darío vestido de monje (1914) and Maternidad del barreño (1921), to name a few.

In 1929-30 Vázquez Díaz did the mural paintings of Poema del Descubrimiento in the Convento de Santa María de la Rábida. At first the artist had planned on finishing these frescoes for the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, but the project was not approved until mid-July and the preparatory works to prime the walls did not start until October 12, so the group of mural paintings was not finished until the following year. In April 1930 work started on the first scene: El pensamiento del navegante, which has the same background landscape as this canvas of the BBVA Collection.

This work is one of the many views of the mouth of rivers Domingo and Odiel, with Punta Umbría as a backdrop and the preserves factory in the middle of the composition, which the artist did from a window in the Mirador de los Frailes of the monastery of La Rábida. The arch accentuates the architectural character of the composition, whose elements are rendered in geometrical shapes. The canvas achieves a balance between structure and colour, dominated by the cool hues favoured by the painter.