Hernando Viñes (Paris, 1904 - 1993) Oil on canvas.... Lot 45

Hernando Viñes (Paris, 1904 - 1993) Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in 1930. 81 x 65 cm. Provenance: - Probably from the Zervos Gallery (Christian or his brother Stamos Zervos). - Mme. Simon Gravel Collection, intimate friend of Stamos Zervos. Viñes was one of the historical avant-garde painters. As the critic Fernando Calvo Serraller notes in the article which he published in the newspaper El País on the painter´s death, Viñes was one of those who: “in the decades between the wars, developed an aesthetic between post-cubism and surrealism, but, above all, a refined, modern pictorial taste, as can be clearly seen in the paintings of Bores, Peinado, Manuel Ángeles Ortiz, Cossío, De la Serna and Viñes himself.” The painting which we present comes from a very significant moment in Viñes´ artistic life. He had been living in Paris since 1919, he initially trained in the painter Maurice Denis´ workshop of sacred art, as well as studying drawing at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, to later be moved by his own restless avant-garde spirit to train at André Lhote´s and Severini´s studios. In 1923, thanks to his uncle, the renowned pianist Ricardo Viñes, Manuel de Falla commissioned him to design the sets and figurines, alongside Manuel Ángeles Ortiz, for the Parisian premiere of his puppet opera, “El retablo de Maese Pedro”. Through this job he got to know Luis Buñuel, who became a lifelong friend and was artistic director for the Amsterdam production. A year later he met the art critics Teriade and Christian Zervos, founder and director of Cahiers d'Art, a magazine which had become the greatest exponent of avant-garde art and architecture of the time. Zervos published numerous articles praising the quality of Viñes´ output. The aesthetic climate of Paris in the 20´s is summarised very well in Ana Vázquez de Parga´s text for the catalogue of the exhibition “Istmos. Spanish avant-garde artists 1915-1936” which sh