A farmyard (Aragon)
Ca. 1872. Oil on paper attached to canvas.Not on display
Between two walled fences, a semi-abandoned, lintelled building frames the entrance. The gate is open and leads to an open-air farmyard in which several chickens are running around. Strong contrasts of light and shadow are present on the stony ground and on the tower on the left. In the same year, Morera painted a quite significant and very similar work, Corral de casa de campo [Barnyard in a Country House], Museo de Zaragoza, no. 0731. Morera’s painting was dedicated precisely to Federico Muntadas, a common friend of both painters. This casts some doubt on Morera´s autobiographical note in which he states that he met Haes in 1874, and it is more reasonable to assume, when he wrote this review, 26 years late, that the artist misremembered the dates when their friendship began.
Gutiérrez Márquez, Ana, Carlos de Haes en el Museo del Prado, 1826-1898: catálogo razonado, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2002, p.66
