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Motherhood
Larroque, Ángel
Bilbao, 06/09/1874-Bilbao, 22/01/1961
Oil on canvas
129 x 201 cm
A. Larroque (bottom right hand corner)
1895
Late 19th century
82/109
Contributed by the City Council of Bilbao in 1924
Ángel Larroque made this painting at the age of 21 and sent it to Bilbao from Paris, along with Girl with a Cat (inv. no. 82/108). Larroque arrived in the capital of France in 1893 and enrolled as a student at the academy of the painter Eugène Carrière, where he was swept up in his tender, mild ways of seeing and painting. There are some parallels between these youthful Larroque paintings and Carrière's mature works. However, they are not merely thematic affinities centred on interior domestic scenes peopled with mothers and children but also the blurred spatial depths achieved with greys and ochres on the walls and floors. Carrière also contributed another component to Larroque: symbolism. Far from the literally fantastical and the cryptically mythological, the French painter murmured pre-Freudian messages of ordinary nature without the need to construct epic or dramatic fictional tales.
Reclining on a Thonet-style sofa, a young woman wearing a red dress, which fully covers her, is resting her back and head on a large white cushion. On top her body is a child only clad in an unbuttoned white jacket. She is watchful, with her black eyes wide open observing the spectator, seeking direct communication. The child, in contrast, is sleeping, his body sprawled out, displaying his nudity with innocent naturalism. The deeper sexual allusions are indirect. The presence of the child hints at the expectant maternal sexuality of the woman, whose red dress is an allusion to the flesh which it conceals. Her posture, reclining and with her right arm tucked under her head, also evokes and invites the sexual act, despite the sleeping presence of the little boy, who is nonetheless presented as its fruit. The cushion is a halo of purity penetrated by the dark hair and rosy flesh of the woman, which becomes particularly intense in the ardent, sanguine blush of her cheeks.
"Sometimes his children sleep nude on their mothers'laps (a twenty-year-old mother who seems like the perfect wife), and like the sedative emanation of a dream, the painter bathes her soft, gleaming flesh with that filtered light which gently laps at things with its golden tongue." The nudity, the reproductive sexuality, the youth, the sedative sleepiness, the soft skin, the tongue that laps, the mother's lap; perhaps without being fully aware of it, Juan de la Encina mentioned the profound, symbolic keys of this work.
Viewed on the diagonal, the scene is set in a household in which we can only glimpse the ochre floor and the wall covered with a flowered print. On the upper part, the curves of the structural wood of the Thonet sofa generate sweeping arabesque lines which emerge from the reclining bodies, like dreams which play out over the artificial flower background, enclosed in themselves. (Javier González de Durana)
Selected bibliography
- 50 años de pintura vasca, 1885-1935 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, 1971. n° cat. 17.
- 50 años de pintura vasca, 1885-1935 [Cat. exp.]. San Sebastián, Museo de San Telmo, 1972. s. p., n° cat. 54.
- Marrodán, Mario Ángel. Los pinceles de Vasconia. Bilbao, La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, 1974. p. 59.
- Exposición homenaje al pintor Ángel Larroque, 1874-1961 [Folleto]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1974. s. p., n° cat. 5.
- Marrodán, Mario Ángel. Los pinceles de Vasconia. Bilbao, La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, 1974. p. 269.
- Larroque [Folleto]. Madrid, Patronato Nacional de Museos, 1976. p. 10, n° cat. 6.
- Bengoechea, Javier de. Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao. Bilbao, La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, 1978. p. 20.
- Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 75. (Con el título Maternidad).
- Llano Gorostiza, Manuel. Pintura vasca. Bilbao, Editorial Neguri, 1980. p. 110
- Nosotros los vascos : arte IV : del neoclasicismo a las tendencias modernas del arte. Donostia-San Sebastián, Lur, 1989. p. 228.
- Arnáiz, José Manuel [dir.]. Cien años de pintura en España y Portugal, 1830-1930. Madrid, Antiquaria, vol. IV, 1990. p. 239.
- Castañer López, Xesqui. La imagen de la mujer en la plástica vasca contemporánea, s. XVIII-XX : aproximación a una metodología del género. Bilbao, Universidad del País Vasco = Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, 1993. p. 70.
- Tradition and modernity in basque painting, 1880-1939 = Tradición y modernidad en la pintura vasca, 1880-1939 [Cat. exp.]. Southampton ; Bilbao, Southampton City Art Gallery ; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1997. pp. 36, 73, 116, n° cat. 15.
- Pintura simbolista en España, 1890-1930 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, 1997. pp. 106-107.
- Juan de la Encina y la trama del Arte Vasco [Folleto]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes, 1998. s. p.
- Zugaza, Miguel ... [et al.]. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : maestros antiguos y modernos. Bilbao, Fundación Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa = Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa Fundazioa, 1999. pp. 156-157
- "El retrato en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao = Erretratua Bilboko Arte Eder Museoan", Guía de Exposiciones, n° 293. 2000. n° cat. 30.
- Emakumearen irudia : bestelako begiratu bat = La imagen de la mujer : otra mirada [Cat. exp.]. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Diputación Foral de Álava, 2003. pp. 60-61.
- Ángel Larroque : un pintor, el olvido y la memoria [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2003. pp. 22-23, 27, 66, 70, 81-83, 92, 94, 97-99, 107, n° cat. 1.
- Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 141.
- Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 141.
- Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 141.
- De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. p. 539-541. N° cat. 121
- Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 64-65.
- Entre dos siglos : España 1900 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, 2008. p. 81.
- Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 64-65.
- Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 142, n° cat. 99.
- Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 142, n° cat. 99.
- Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 63-64, n° cat. 29a.
- Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 142.
- Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 142.
- 110 Años 110 Obras [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 168-169, sin n° cat.
- 110 Ans 110 Oeuvres [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 168-169, sin n° cat.
- 110 Urte 110 Artelan [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 168-169, sin n° cat.
- 110 Years 110 Works [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 168-169, sin n° cat.
- Bilboko Museoaren alfabetoa = El alfabeto del Museo de Bilbao = The alphabet of the Bilbao Museum = L'alphabet du Musée de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 275, 281, n° cat. 156.