Landscape. Stream in the orchards of Luche (in the vicinity of Madrid)
1873. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
The landscape depicts the orchards near the Arroyo Luche in Madrid, a tributary of the Manzanares River that used to flow through what is now the district of Aluche in Madrid, and to which it gave its name.
In this work, which was signed in the year of the artist’s death and shows a certain evolution in the painter’s way of conceiving landscapes, based on large, highly defined diagonal planes that establish the vanishing perspectives, the orographic profiles and the masses of vegetation. There is also a greater ease of execution, which in some areas borders on the risk of greater lightness and flatness, without disregarding the small figures who pass through them, thus bringing the natural scenery to life. (Pintura del Siglo XIX en el Museo del Prado: Catálogo General [19th Century Painting in the Prado Museum: General Catalogue], Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2015, p. 225 and Díez García, José Luis, Los discípulos de Haes y su repercusión pública. Las huellas del maestro [Carlos de Haes´ disciples and their public impact. In the footsteps of the master], in Carlos de Haes (1826–1898), cat. exp., Santander, Fundación Marcelino Botín, 2002, pp. 145–146).
