Eugenio Hermoso Martínez

EUGENIO HERMOSO MARTÍNEZ (Fregenal de la Sierra, Badajoz, 1883 - Madrid, 1963).
"Enamorada", 1922.
Oil on canvas.
We are grateful to the Eugenio Hermoso Martínez Foundation for their help in the cataloguing.
Work referenced in the Illustrated Official Catalog: National Exhibition of Fine Arts MCMXXIV. p. 31.
Signed, dated and titled on the back.
It has a period frame.
Signed, dated and located (Madrid) in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 118 x 84 cm; 132 x 103 cm (frame).
In 1922, in full creative maturity, Eugenio Hermoso Martínez stops in front of an image that had accompanied all his trajectory: the young woman from Extremadura as a symbol of beauty, identity and contained emotion. From that look Enamorada was born, a work that not only portrays a girl, but also condenses the sensitivity of a painter deeply linked to his land. Enamorada was presented at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1924. Spain was then experiencing tensions between tradition and the new avant-garde currents that were beginning to question the academic models. Hermoso, however, chose to remain faithful to a lyrical and serene figuration.
In the work we contemplate a young woman dressed in traditional clothing, wrapped in a richly decorated shawl and holding a fan in her hands. The choice of the female figure is not accidental. Throughout his career, Hermoso turned the Extremaduran woman into a symbol of idealized beauty and cultural identity. This is not an individual portrait, but an image that transcends the personal to become an archetype. Color plays a fundamental role. The intense reds of the shawl contrast with the neutral and blurred background, which barely suggests a natural environment. This neutrality of the space concentrates all the attention on the figure, which emerges with strength. Eugenio Hermoso creates this work by applying a loose and doughy brushstroke based on spots of color, with a rich chromatic palette. The personal and unmistakable style of the modernist and colorist impressionism of his early works can be appreciated. As an exceptional portraitist, he created a valuable iconographic gallery, whose contemplation brings us closer to the way of life of the simple people of the village.
Eugenio Hermoso began his studies at the School of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel de Hungría in Seville, with a scholarship from the City Council and the Provincial Council of Badajoz. In 1901 he moved to Madrid to continue his training at the School of San Fernando, and there he also dedicated himself to making copies of the great masters in the Prado Museum. During these years he frequented the Ateneo and the Círculo de Bellas Artes, being praised by intellectuals such as Pío Baroja, Díaz Canedo and Juan Ramón Jiménez. He then began a study trip that took him to France and Belgium, as well as the most important Italian cities: Genoa, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice and Milan. On this trip Eugenio Hermoso came into contact with the European avant-garde, meeting the Impressionists and admiring the portraits of Egyptian sarcophagi from the Roman period. In 1912 he embarked for England, exhibiting his work in London that same year. In 1918 he settled in Madrid forcibly and definitively. From then on he frequented the nightly gatherings of the Nuevo Levante café, attended by the brothers Ricardo and Pío Baroja, Ignacio Zuloaga, José Gutiérrez Solana and Rafael de Penagos, among others; and the Maisón Doré café, together with Jacinto Benavente, Manuel and Antonio Machado and Francisco Villaespesa. In 1922 he held his first major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, with public and sales success. Professor at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, he was appointed academician in 1941. Seven years later he will be distinguished with the medal of honor in the National. Under the pseudonym of Francisco Teodoro de Nertóbriga he published his "Autobiography" in 1955, and signed his satirical paintings. He is mainly represented in the Fine Arts Museums of Badajoz and Seville, as well as in other public and private collections.