Sonata - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Sonata

Díaz Olano, Ignacio

Vitoria-Gasteiz, 01/02/1860-Vitoria-Gasteiz, 07/03/1937

Oil on canvas

109 x 130.5 cm

I. DIAZ OLANO (bottom right hand corner); Diaz Olano (on the reverse)

c. 1909-1910

First decade of the 20th century

91/310

Acquired in 1991

Presented at the 1910 National Exhibition, this work reflects Díaz Olano's interest in relatively unimportant subjects, frequently peopled by a type of woman with a certain cultural background, and executed with the kind of delicacy to be found in most of his work. Furthermore, we can see here the persistence of formal precision, the interest in the picturesque and the excess of rigour in the drawing, a legacy, to a great extent, of his training in Rome, these being some of the typical aspects of Díaz Olano's painting criticized by his detractors. However, in Sonata the treatment of the background and the ground is new; they are rendered in a less conventional way that imbues the image with immediacy, a feature underscored by the evident photographic setting. [Javier Novo González]

Selected bibliography

  • Artistas vascos en Roma : 1865-1915 [Cat. exp.]. Donostia-San Sebastián, Kutxa Gizarte eta Kultur Fundazioa = Fundación Social y Cultural Kutxa, 1995. p. 272, sin n° cat.
  • Tradition and modernity in basque painting, 1880-1939 = Tradición y modernidad en la pintura vasca, 1880-1939 [Cat. exp.]. Southampton ; Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes, 1997. pp. 26, 59-60, 110, n° cat. 8.
  • Tradición y modernidad en la pintura vasca : en las colecciones del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Autoridad Portuaria de Valencia, 1999. pp. 56-57.
  • Arcediano Salazar, Santiago. Ignacio Díaz Olano [Cat. exp.]. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Fundación Caja Vital Kutxa, 2001. pp. 109-110, 222, 288.
  • Emakumearen irudia : bestelako begiratu bat = La imagen de la mujer : otra mirada [Cat. exp.]. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Diputación Foral de Álava, 2003. pp. 30-31.
  • 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. pp. 476-478, n° cat. 105.
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. p. 38.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. p. 38.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. p. 38, n° cat. 15.
  • Ignacio Diaz Olano : pasión por la realidad [Cat. exp.]. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Diputación Foral de Álava, 2017. pp. 136, 138, 274, sin n° cat.