Darío De Regoyos

DARÍO DE REGOYOS Y VALDÉS (Ribadesella, Asturias, 1857 - Barcelona, 1913).
"Surroundings of Barcelona (Viaduct)", 1912.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
With label on the back of the Anthological Exhibition dedicated to the artist organized by the Fundación Caja de Pensiones (Barcelona and Madrid, 1986-1987), where it appeared with the number 182 of the catalog.
On the back in pencil by Regoyos he titled it "Alrededores de Barcelona" and also wrote "He was not in Buenos Aires, there is a frame there". The canvas bears the seal of the manufacturer of the painting, the Catalan house Enrique Teixidor.
Provenance: Its first owner was D. Pedro Menchaca, then it passed to its current owner.
Bibliography:
- It appears in the Catalogue Raisonné with the card number 679.
-Catalog of the exhibition "Homage to Regoyos", organized by the Banco de Bilbao, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, Oviedo, March 1980. Figure reproduced in black and white on page 40.
-Catalog of the exhibition "Homage to Regoyos", organized by the Banco de Bilbao, Museo de San Telmo, San Sebastián, March to April 1980. Figure reproduced in black and white on page 40.
-Catalog of the exhibition "Homage to Regoyos", organized by the Banco de Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao, April 1980. Figure reproduced in black and white on page 40.
- Catalog of the exhibition "Darío de Regoyos", organized by the Fundación Caja de Pensiones in Barcelona and Madrid, 1986-1987. Figure reproduced in color on page 272 and described on page 301.
Exhibitions:
- "Darío de Regoyos" exhibition, Dalmau Gallery, Barcelona, March 27 to April 10, 1913. Figure exhibited with the number 15 and with the title "Vallvidrera, Aqueduct".
- Exhibition "Homage to Darío de Regoyos", Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao, June 1951. Figure exhibited with the number 34 and with the title "Aqueduct near Barcelona". Property of Mr. Pedro Menchaca.
- Exhibition "Homage to Regoyos", organized by the Banco de Bilbao, at the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, Oviedo, March 1980. Figure exhibited with the number 10 and with the title "Alrededores de Barcelona".
Exhibition "Homage to Regoyos", organized by the Banco de Bilbao, at the San Telmo Museum, San Sebastian, March to April 1980. Figure exhibited with the number 10 and with the title "Alrededores de Barcelona".
Exhibition "Homage to Regoyos", organized by the Banco de Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao, April 1980.
Figure exhibited with the number 10 and with the title "Alrededores de Barcelona".
Exhibition "Darío de Regoyos", organized by the Fundación Caja de Pensiones in Barcelona and Madrid, 1986-1987.
Figure exhibited with the number 182 and with the title "Vallvidrera, Aqueduct".
We thank Juan San Nicolás, the leading expert in Darío de Regoyos's painting, for his invaluable help in cataloguing this lot.
Measurements: 61 x 50 cm; 78 x 66.5 cm (frame).

In this vibrant view of Vallvidrera, Regoyos captures the Barcelona landscape from a fully impressionist sensibility. The aqueduct, which crosses the composition horizontally through a rhythmic succession of arches, structures the space and acts as a visual axis between architecture and nature.

During his second stay in Barcelona, Darío de Regoyos' activity acquired a sedentary character, remaining in Catalan lands until the dawn of 1913. During this period, his production began to be restricted to the domestic environment or to immediate locations, as can be seen in his views of Tibidabo, often painted from his own residence. This limitation in his mobility suggests the first onslaughts of the disease which, although not precisely diagnosed at the time, was already beginning to condition his creative freedom. The silent advance of the cancer that would end his life would mark, in this way, the beginning of a more intimate and recollected stage in his painting.

The loose and fragmented brushstroke, together with a luminous palette dominated by intense greens, violets and golden ochers, reveals the artist's interest in atmospheric effects and chromatic vibration. The contrast between the sunlit areas - which illuminate the hillside and the arches - and the bluish shadows in the foreground is evidence of his mastery of Mediterranean light, reinterpreted from his international training and his close contact with Belgian and French Impressionism.

A key figure in the introduction of Impressionism in Spain, Regoyos integrated into his peninsular landscapes the research on color and perception developed in Europe. The present work was exhibited in the Anthological Exhibition dedicated to Darío de Regoyos organized by the Fundación Caja de Pensiones (Barcelona and Madrid, 1986-1987), where it was number 182 in the catalog.

Trained in Brussels, where he was linked to the circle of Les XX, Regoyos maintained an intense relationship with the Belgian and French artistic environment, participating in the debates of the fin-de-siècle pictorial modernity. His work evolved from a naturalistic realism towards an impressionist and divisionist language, characterized by the fragmentation of the brushstroke and the exaltation of light. He is represented in important public collections such as the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, among others.