Mountains (Aragon)
Ca. 1872. Oil on paper attached to canvas.Not on display
On the left, the slope of the massif falls down to the broad esplanade where the other slope of the mountain meets. Between the yellowish clouds of a stormy sky, a break of light illuminates the distant areas concealed by the dark rocky mass. Here, the author depicts the orange and sepia tones of the clayey areas and the limestone greys of the rocky structure, which make up the geology of the lands of Aragon. Given the mountainous morphology and the rocky chromatism, it can be assumed that this work is another landscape taken from the foothills of the Mesa River canyon, where it opens out onto the plain that culminates in the rocky structure of the Solorio Range. This study contrasts the solidity and stability of the massif´s mass with the instability of the changing and fleeting atmospheric effects, which Haes liked to capture with masterly skill. Critics were already commenting on this skill from an early date and they assiduously praised this special and peculiar gift of the master.
Gutiérrez Márquez, Ana, Carlos de Haes en el Museo del Prado, 1826-1898: catálogo razonado, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2002, p.80
