Welcome to Madrid

The Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson’s has opened its new headquarters in the Chamberí district, a stone’s throw from the Paseo del Arte. From 6 September to 28 May 2023, it will be hosting its first exhibition comprising a selection of 117 paintings from its vast collections of 19th century Spanish paintings (Goya, Madrazo, Fortuny…)

The route spans from Francisco de Goya to modernism and Catalonian postmodernism, highlighting the wealth and variety of the paintings in the collection and evolution. It features the most prominent Spanish painters of the day and includes two important works by Francisco de Goya and Agustín Esteve, a neoclassic portrait by Zacarías González Velázquez and paintings by Vicente López. The Madrid painters also excelled in portraiture, as illustrated by three works from the youth and early maturity of the foremost practitioner of this genre, Federico de Madrazo.

The works of Eugenio Lucas Velázquez reflect the Goyesque streak, linked to the tapestry cartoons and scenes of war and violence. The genre paintings by Dionisio Fierros and Eduardo Rosales reveal the interest in everyday scenes during the transition from Romanticism to realism.

The exhibition also focuses on the trends that emerged in the last third of the century, including the historic genre, in which Ignacio León y Escosura and Francisco Domingo stood out; landscapes in its relist variant with Carlos de Haes, Agustín Riancho, Martín Rico, Mariano Fortuny and Luis Álvarez Catalá; and the naturalist variant with Aureliano de Beruete, Eliseo Meifrén, José Moreno Carbonero and Cecilio Pla, among others.

An important and core part of the exhibition is made up of some of the collection’s numerous works by Joaquín Sorolla. It also includes works of Catalonian postmodernism with four gypsy scenes dated between 1901 and 1909 by Isidro Nonell and various landscapes by Joaquín Mir and Joaquín Sunyer.

Photo credit:

My Wife and Daughters in the Garden, 1910, Masaveu Collection © Reproduction: María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation. Photograph by: Marcos Morilla.