The Moroccan Eavesdroppers
Ca. 1879. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
This painting was produced by Muñoz Degraín on one of his trips to Tangiers. As his signature attests, the artist submitted this painting to the 1881 National Exhibition (no. 480) along with those entitled Othello and Desdemona, A Braggart (P006569), and Memories of Granada (P004520).
This canvas testifies to the enormous attraction that North Africa always held for Muñoz Degraín, as for so many other painters of his time. The seeming exoticism of its people and customs, the exuberance of its colour and the orientalist evocation of African landscapes are significant part of his artwork as many of his paintings reveal. In this case, two men are depicted hiding behind some prickly pears. One of them, lying with his face pressed to the ground, tries to listen to the hoofbeats of the horses they are waiting for, perhaps in a planned ambush, as his hidden cannon suggests. The painting is yet another example of Muñoz Degrain´s interest in battle and combat scenes. They are often set, as on this occasion, in African environments and generally feature medium sized figures. The artist´s clearly displays a disinterest in the correctness of the drawing in favour of a greater colouristic and compositional effect, which is here reduced to the two listeners and the vegetation where they are hidden (Díez, J. L. in: Maestros de la pintura de Muñoz Degrain, The Masters of the Art of War: A Painting by Muñoz Degrain. L. in: Maestros de la pintura valenciana del siglo XIX in the Museo del Prado. Museo del Prado, 1997, p. 128).
