Darío de Regoyos

DARÍO DE REGOYOS (Asturias, 1857 - Barcelona, 1913).
"Farm of Belgium", 1881.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 63 x 53 cm, 87 x 96 cm (frame).

The work represents a rural landscape with a farmhouse partially hidden among trees and a road that structures the composition diagonally. In the scene appear small figures next to poultry, integrated in a serene natural environment.

The painting is painted with loose and fragmented brushstrokes, typical of the artist's impressionist language, and stands out for its palette of greens and soft tones, as well as for a diffuse light that adds atmosphere. It is situated within the mature stage of Regoyos, in its most luminous and focused on plein air painting.

Trained at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, where he studied landscape painting with the Belgian artist Carlos de Haes as a teacher. It was then that the Asturian artist's knowledge began to expand towards Belgian landscape trends, a taste and interest that he developed by traveling to Belgium in 1879. The stay in Brussels was enriching for Regoyos, attending the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels as a student. However, the academicism integrated in the institution caused the artist to leave, and he turned to the former teacher of Carlos de Haes, Joseph Quinaux, in order to acquire new techniques.Regoyos became perfectly integrated in his new place of residence, he met a large number of artists, poets and writers, from whom he learned and completed himself as an artist. His recognition advanced thanks to his dynamism and artistic skill, which allowed him to enter the famous Circle of the XX (act. 1883-1894). It could be said that it was from then on when Regoyos' artistic career began to mature. In 1886, the Asturian artist developed a pointillist stage promoted by George Seurat's participation in one of the exhibitions held at the Circle of the XX. The commotion and impact caused by Seurat's treatment provoked the creation of a pointillist group, in which Darío de Regoyos participated. This innovative movement attracted French impressionist artists such as Paul Signac, another reference in the artistic technique of Regoyos. After the dissolution of Los XX in 1893, Regoyos decided to return to Spain where the artistic panorama was limited, since the new tendencies had not yet arrived from France. It could be said that this was the end of his apprenticeship period, becoming a teacher of artists liberalized from the "sorollismo" rooted in the field of landscape painting, and encouraging them to spread his ideas through the media of the time.
The Asturian artist's exhibition career covered a large number of cities, such as Bilbao, Frankfurt, Berlin, The Hague, Venice, Bayonne, San Sebastian, London, Mexico City, Bordeaux and Buenos Aires, among others. It is also represented in institutions such as the Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña in Barcelona, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao and the Gerstenmaier Collection, among many other museums and institutions.