Museums of Spain

Las Meninas (1656), Velázquez

I'm anxious to explore Madrid and Barcelona, Spain for the architecture, history, scenery, and of course the art museums. The Museo del Prado in Madrid would be the first place I'd like to visit. I am interested in the works of El Greco, Velázquez, and Goya, and as a bonus: Titian, Van Dyck and Rembrandt. It's always a welcomed surprise to find a Rembrandt! In 1656, as part of the royal court of King Philip IV in the Spanish Golden Age, Diego Velázquez painted his iconic Las Meninas. In the group portrait, images of the King and Queen are reflected in a mirror, while the Queen's attendant, José Nieto pulls back the curtain to let more light into the room through the doorway. Édouard Manet admired Velázquez as Painter of the Painters.

Assumption of the Virgin
(1515-18), Titian

Assumption of the Virgin
(1577-79), El Greco

Unfortunately, I missed the Prado exhibition that ended in June 2025 displaying El Greco's (Greek artist born Doménikos Theotokópoulos) Assumption of the Virgin. It resembles Titian's earlier Assumption of 1515-18.

Dogs on a Leash (1775), Goya

Another 'Assumption' painter is Francisco Goya, who, besides painting religious panels, also painted this portrait of two dogs on a leash. It's disturbing to see them chained together, as if being enslaved by the unseen hunter. The detail reminds me of the portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds, famous for being the President and founding member of the British Royal Academy.

Modern and Contemporary Painters

The Elephants (1948), Dali

Other artists I would encounter are modern artists such as Dali, Picasso, and Miró. Salvador Dali has museums in Barcelona and Figueres (his hometown), Spain and St Petersburg, Florida. His works are also featured at the Prado in Madrid. When I teach art to elementary school students, I often use Dali's Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937) as an example of surrealism. Later, he conceived of this more futuristic version of gigantic elephants.

Robots of Star Wars

Makes you wonder if Steven Spielberg was a fan of Salvador Dali's dreamt up pachyderm-like figures.

Guernica (1937), Picasso

Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró works are also exhibited at the Prado. Picasso's Guernica was returned to the Museo Reina Sofía in Spain in 1981. It depicts the bombing of a town in the Basque country in Northern Spain in 1937 by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

House with the Palm Tree (1918), Miró 

Born in Barcelona, Catalan Surrealist Joan Miró's paintings may be found in multiple Spanish museums and galleries. While The Farm (1921-22) may be seen in Washington D.C., you'll have to visit the Museo Reina Sofía to admire the earlier House with the Palm Tree (1918).

Harlequin with a Mirror
(1923), Picasso

While in Madrid, you may also want to explore the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. An exhibit of Warhol and Pollock artwork will be there until January 2026, with Picasso and Klee paintings through February 2026. I will surely miss those!  Harlequin with Mirror (1923) and Bullfight (1934) are apparently part of the museum's permanent collection, though the website says, 'not exhibited'. I guess you'll have to go there and see!

View onto a Square (1912), Klee

This rather primitive landscape by Swiss German artist Paul Klee is at Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. As you may have guessed it is chalk and crayon on paper and mounted on cardboard. He used gouache, an opaque, watercolor paint thickened with a glue-like substance. I can envision an art project for kindergarten thru 3rd grade students, using crayon or oil pastels to resist washes of watercolor paint, that would surely not intimidate the young artists.

After visiting France and Italy in 2011, the UK in 2017, and cruising the Baltics in 2019, I was able to check off several of the 14 must-see museums from my bucket list. The Prado is next! And, if I make it back to Florida, I will not miss the Dali Museum!!

Still Life with Puppies, etc.

Still Life with Three Puppies
(1888), Gauguin

This post is inspired by one of Paul Gauguin's lesser-known paintings, entitled "Still Life with Three Puppies". It caused me to research the topic of obscure, maybe out of character works by famous artists. While Gauguin is famous for painting native Tahitian woman, I found it very strange that he would consider painting, of all subjects, puppies. Upon further study, it's true that Gauguin often included horses and dogs in his landscapes. You may also find an occasional cat or bird.

Apparently, the artist was influenced by the Japanese prints that Van Gogh brought to him, along with children's book illustrations. The puppies must have been just born, as they are disproportioned to the goblets and fruit arranged on the tabletop. I love the pattern captured in the tablecloth! The dark blue outlines mimic its botanical print, with the shapes repeated on the dogs' coats.

Woman Walking in a Garden (1887), Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh also had a few paintings in which he departed from his usual style of expressive brushstrokes, making him seem calmer and his palette more monochromatic. The sunny yellow skirt is surely reminiscent of Vincent!

Still Life with Apples, Pears, Lemons and Grapes
(1887), Van Gogh

His Still Life with Apples, Pears, Lemons and Grapes is also an interesting choice of subject for Vincent, as with his friend, Gauguin's experiment with Still Life. Only the background has his characteristic mesmerizing, swirling brushstrokes. I am amazed that I can still find these gems, after studying my favorite artist for so many years!

Sunflowers (1887), Van Gogh

One of Van Gogh's most prolific subjects was sunflowers. In more than a dozen of his paintings, the sunflowers are arranged in vases on tabletops. Other than his paintings of crabs, I hadn't recalled this version of (dead) flowers. I like that he chose a blue background color and less-vibrant yellow for the subject!

Other researchers of this topic put Edvard Munch's The Scream, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, and Marcel Duchamp's Fountain into this category, but I don't agree. These are still classics and immediately recognizable to everyone who see them.

The Table (1920), Miró 

As you know, Joan Miró is another of my favorite artists. His The Table shows a still life primarily in yellow and black, with a very graphic array of geometric shapes. This is a certain departure from his minimalistic grouping of symbols in black and the three primary colors. Like The Farm (1921), this is a very busy composition!

Still Life with Old Shoe (1937), Miró 

Then there's Miró's Still Life with Old Shoe. I absolutely love this non-traditional 'still life'! It's like he airbrushed the colors. Again, I don't know why I hadn't ever seen this painting before! He even added green to the mix of colors!! It reminds me of the charcuterie board my daughter made for Thanksgiving, along with the pumpkin made of puff pastry-covered brie cheese (foreground lower left?).

Oysters (1862), Manet

The final three examples may be described as still life's though they include a solitary subject, rather than being composed of various unlike items. I'll begin with Édouard Manet's Oysters. His composition also included a plate, a fork, a halved lemon, and a dipping sauce. The dark table and charcoal grey background make the objects appear to float.

Still Life with Golden Breams (1812), de Goya

Also, a still life composed primarily of a pile of dying fish, here is Francisco de Goya's Still Life with Golden Bream. Some have said that it "emblematic of the human bloodshed brought on by Spain's war with France". I'm not sure what possessed de Goya to paint such a thing! I'm reminded of Andrew Wyeth's study of a dead squirrel, in which he smears blood on his painting.

Mound of Butter (1885), Vollon

Finally, I am including this Mound of Butter! A painting by Antoine Vollon, it is simply a knife stuck in some butter on a platter, on a table with two eggs. Maybe this image sparked Steven Spielberg to use Devil's Tower as the image that haunted Richard Dreyfuss' character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)!