Museo del Prado is exhibiting the works of Antonio Muñoz Degrain (1840–1924) in its latest exhibition, running until 11 January 2026 in Room 60 of the Villanueva Building.
Following the museum’s practice since 2009 of educating the viewers about its 19th-century collection, this small single-theme exhibition displays 10 works by the painter, 5 of which are recently restored. Through this, the museum is looking to highlight the thematic variety, technical skill, and aesthetic vision of the Valencian painter.
Degrain, known for his versatile nature and an independent style, painted several subjects- from subjects of emotional qualities to landscapes to ones that explored religious themes, his fascination in finding new pictorial styles made his catalog stand and is a testament to how art, if done right, can withstand the rigidity of time.
Establishing this very fact, the exhibition focuses on a series of the artist’s landscapes and works that either convey a certain exoticism or explore religious or historical themes. One of the most important ones among these pictures and one that the museum seems to promote heartedly alongside other works of his is the Landscape at El Pardo, Mist Rising of 1866. Displaying a slightly loose brushwork and certain qualities of Diego Velázquez, this painting won the artist a medal in the National Exhibition in 1866.
Other works on display include Memories of Granada, View of Granada and Sierra Nevada, The Lovers of Teruel, Before the Wedding, The Moroccan Eavesdroppers, Corner of a Toledo Courtyard (1904), Jesus at Tiberias, among others.
In addition to these masterpieces, a nearby showcase will light the artist’s acceptance speech “on sincerity of art”, given when he was inducted into the Academia de San Fernando (1899), a drawing donated to the collections, and a picture of his portrait by the sculptor Miguel Blay.
This exhibition is not only a walk through history but a formation of the same as the series continues its efforts to divert interest to the skills and intellect of Spanish artists before modernism.
Featured Image: Landscape at El Pardo, Mist Rising by Antonio Muñoz Degrain; Antonio Muñoz Degrain, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Related Reads.
