At the dam or A flock of sheep
1897. Oil on canvas.Not on display
The painting is one of the three oil paintings that constitute his second year’s pension remittance. In the canvas, a flock of sheep extends across the central part of the composition with almost life-size sheep. A dog in the foreground, occupying the lower left-hand area, creates a pronounced effect with the black and white of his coat, whilst the sheep with its bell – also in the foreground – serves as a very marked reference for the viewer. Other animals spread out to the same foreground, where a rocky ground emerges in the lower part of the painting, on the right-hand side. A dam in the background and behind the flock on the left-hand side is accompanied by a construction that descends in height to a lower meadow. As the dam is situated in a higher position, it is delimited by a path where the gate is located. And the small pillars of this gate create a pleasing effect as a cubic or geometrical element in the centre of the composition. In the distance, we see gentle slopes on the left and the profile of another mountainous landscape, not very pronounced, with the cloudy sky – grey effects – in the upper register. The range of greens is fresh and juicy in the foreground around the rocky outcrops (where they appear toasted and yellowish for the moss on the rocks) and a more velvety green in the low meadow on the right-hand side. There are also beautiful earthy and violet effects in the land behind the still water dam, where the blues are accentuated in accordance with the shadows cast on it. There are also blues with hints of Earth and chestnut colours in the bushes on the hillside and in the mountainous background.
Roma y el ideal académico: la pintura en la Academia Española de Roma, Comunidad de Madrid, 1992, p.164 y 165
