When you are the daughter of a famous portrait artist, who is famous for portraits of young women, you are portraited a lot. I’m not sure how much Carmen enjoyed this after a certain age.
These, in reverse chronological order, are oil on canvas, pencil on paper, pencil on paper, and crayon on paper. At least, that’s how I translate lápiz de cera. No indication of how big his box of Crayolas is.
The painting at the top of the page is proof that young women aren’t the only thing he drew. As further proof, the temporary exhibit being run was a series of famous generals.
I won’t dwell on them, except to note the generals are all stern and proud, which must say something about the competence of the portrayer.
But the reason you go to see pictures by Félix Revello de Toro is the young women. I have far less trouble understanding these than Expressionism, Neo-expressionism, Cubism, or anything Salvador Dalianist.
Apparently, the first woman was wearing heels as she approached the couch.
Now I understand “As if understanding were important.”
By the way, I think I have been attributing that idea to Picasso; it should be Monet and what he actually said was, “Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understanding as if it were necessary to understand.”
The Revello de Toro museum is relatively small, about 100 works (I didn’t count them) that the artist has given to his home town of Málaga. Then it built a museum in his honor to display them and the gift comes out of Carmen’s inheritance anyway.
Tandemonia 