Julia Minguillón

JULIA MINGUILLÓN (Lugo, 1906–Madrid, 1965).
“Goose and Motherhood.”
Mixed media on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Certified by Marcial Minguillón Iglesias, the artist’s sister.
Measurements: 135 × 95 cm; 155 × 110 cm (frame).

Motherhood is one of the most significant themes in the work of Julia Minguillón, an artist who combined her academic training with an intimate and poetic interpretation of rural life. In this large-format work, a mother holds her child while several geese surround them, establishing a connection between maternal protection, domestic life, and the human bond with nature. The artist herself created compositions related to motherhood beginning in the 1940s, sometimes bringing together human and animal figures within the same atmosphere of restrained tenderness.

The mother’s monumental silhouette occupies the central axis, while the curves of the geese’s necks and bodies create a circular movement that focuses attention on the maternal group. The flat treatment of color, the simplification of facial features, and the narrative clarity reveal a particularly modern aspect of her figurative style, distinct from the more naturalistic approach of her portraits.

Julia Minguillón trained at the School of Arts and Crafts and the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. In 1941, she won the First Medal at the National Fine Arts Exhibition for *Escuela de Doloriñas*, one of the most prestigious awards in Spanish painting of her time. Her work is held in the Reina Sofía National Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in A Coruña, and the Afundación collection.