Spanish School (c. 1920) - The Young Lieutenant

Oil on canvas. Original painting.

The young lieutenant adjusted his blue tunic, whose copper buttons glinted under the blazing sun like tiny captive suns, while his red pants - that flamboyant purple that seemed to proclaim the pride of an army from another time - were covered in a whitish, acrid dust. Moustache impeccably trimmed above the upper lip, hair parted with the precision of a strategic map, the officer embodied that tragic elegance of the 1920s, a salon figure lost in the harshness of an outpost. In his eyes, which had previously sought only the glitter of jewels in Madrid casinos or the caress of a fan on the Paseo de la Castellana, now vibrated the desire for adventure and the vertigo of African misadventures, where honor was measured by the ability to stand firm in the face of adversity.

His story oscillated between the glory of parades and the harsh reality of ambushes in the Rif, where his red uniform made him too beautiful a target to be ignored. The lieutenant survived nights on guard under the desert stars, drinking hot cognac to ward off fear and remembering the scent of jasmine at faraway parties, his gloved hand constantly caressing the hilt of his saber like a talisman. Finally, he returned to the peninsula, his soul sewn up with scars that his blue uniform perfectly concealed, his gallant allure from a novel of chivalry intact, a survivor of a golden age that was fading away in cigarette smoke and the echoes of a war that had never quite managed to extinguish his dreams.

- Image size unframed: 52 x 64 cm / 64 x 76 cm with exclusive custom-made frame.