Spanish School (c. 1900) - Granada: At The Generalife

- Oil on canvas. Original canvas.- Martín Rico and Mariano Fortuny, and later the very young Raimundo de Madrazo, revealed to the world the magical essence of Granada through their exquisitely fine paintings. Together, they roamed the streets of the old Nasrid city, painting its unique figures during their artistic career in the 1870s, becoming involved as portraitists in what was the last Muslim city in Western Europe, preserved in 1870 practically as it was at the time of the Catholic Monarchs. This garden, inspired by the mythical Generalife, the fragrant jasmine and myrtle orchard of the Alhambra, is a tropical orchard overlooking the icy snows of the Sierra Nevada, perpetuating the eternal double paradox of Granada: Islam and Christianity, snow-capped mountains and palm-adorned courtyards, Gothic and Mudejar… This painting recalls how these silent palaces, where time stood still five hundred years behind schedule, served as a place of meeting, conversation and debate for the intellectual elites of the early 2000s: imagine Falla and Ravel, Sorolla and Sargent, García Lorca and Diaghilev, strolling through these unique and sublime spaces, while the high and haunting piano notes of “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” resound in the distance. - Unframed image dimensions: 52 x 74 cm / 64 x 86 cm, with an exceptional antique gilt frame.