José Gonzalez Ubierna, Painter Of Sunsets

A majestic painting by the Salamanca artist José Manuel González-Ubierna (1900-1982), depicting a rural scene in an unspecified location in his native land. An architectural design with vertical and horizontal lines frames the main motif: a three-story house (ground floor, first floor, and attic with a terrace). The sky is clear, a deep blue where the setting sun illuminates the house's main facade in a unique way. To emphasize this light, the artist used various shades of white, applied with long, confident brushstrokes, generously loaded with oil paint, in a style reminiscent of the Impressionists. The white tones of the facade are complemented by those used to suggest the hanging laundry. On the left side of the painting, he places a tree, conveying the message of late autumn: its leaves have fallen, and the stacked wood reinforces this idea. To play with light and shadow, without abandoning his characteristically firm touch, he employs a broad, restrained palette of colors, dominated by grays and browns applied to balconies, doors, and windows, as well as ochres for the tiles. The overall effect creates an atmosphere in which one can fully immerse oneself in the essence of the rural world. González-Ubierna is a great painter of moods and messages, a master of drawing and light. He manages to imbue light with an intermediate tone, between light and gray, a difficult and almost unique achievement in the history of our painting. It can be said that he is the painter who best captured the light of sunsets, with a tranquility reminiscent of Velázquez's solemn style.