Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga

Friday February 21 was a cool cloudy day with a high of only 16C.  We headed out late morning to the smaller Mercado Salamanca which is only about a five minute walk from the apartment.  Many fewer vendors, but we stopped at one fish stall where a number of people were waiting to be served.  The fishmonger talked the whole time as he sliced and diced the very fresh looking fish.  Clearly the most popular fish vendor.  It was pure entertainment and we hung around for about 20 minutes, until it was our turn.  We bought some very fresh cod for dinner.

He never stopped talking

Lots of folks in line- we knew this was the right guy, as other stalls were not busy at all

We had lunch at the apartment and then headed out to the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga. The Museum is housed in the Palacio de Villalón, a 16th century city palace which was recently restored. The palace was built over the remains of the Roman city, within the old Moorish quarter of Málaga.  There is a restored Renaissance doorway which leads into the palace.  There are beautiful carved wooden ceilings in some of the rooms.  The permanent collection focuses on 19th century Spanish painting, with a particular focus of Andalusia.  The paintings are part of the collection of Carmen Cervera, the third wife of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.  The museum opened in 2011.

We first explored the permanent exhibit, which was found on the first two floors of the museum, and then went to the two temporary exhibits, one of which (Toulouse-Lautrec) had just opened today.

Outside of the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga

The first section of the permanent collection was called "Romantic Landscape and costumbrismo".  Andalusia became the quintessential Romantic image of Spain.  "It's history, Moorish architecture, gypsies, flamenco, bulls, bandits and religious processions gripped the imagination of writers and artists".

Joaquin Dominquez Bécquer (1817-1879) Maja and Bullfighter 1838

Bécquer- Rendezvous in the Street 1841

Bécquer- Indoor Dance 1841

There were lots of wonderful boat scenes, many set in Sevilla or Málaga

Manuel Barrón y Carrillo (1814-1884), View of the Guadalquivir 1854

Manuel Barrón y Carrillo (1814-1884), The Port of Málaga 1847

Bécquer, View of the Giralda from Calle Placentines, c.1836

There were many pictures of the Seville Fair, an annual event that had started in 1847.  Both wealthy and poor people attended the fair but didn't mingle.

Bécquer, The Seville Fair, 1867 (Wealthy on the left, poorer people on the right--- Arabian horse for sale on the left; small donkey for sale on the right side of the picture)

Antonio Cabral Bejarno (1798-1861) A Bolero Dancer 1842

Manuel Cabral Aguado Bejarno (1827-1891), The Fritter Stall c. 1854

Ángel Maria Cortellini Hernández (1819-1887),  No more Wine, Tavern Scene, 18947

Manuel Cabral Aguado Bejarno, At the Seville Fair, c. 1855

Manuel Cabral Aguado Bejarno, The Brawl, 1850

The following two scenes represented different aspects of Andalusian life as portrayed by a French artist who travelled to Spain.

Alfred Dehodencq (1822-1882), Gypsy Dance in the Gardens of the Alcázar, outside the Pavilion of Charles V, 1851

Dehodencq, A Cofraternity in Procession along Calle Génova, Seville, 1851

Joaquin Turina y Areal (1847-1903), At the Market

Manuel Wssel de Guimbarda, Genre Scene at the Alcázar of Seville, 1872

Manuel Garcia Rodriquez (1863-1923) Inside Courtyard, Seville, 1920

The collection then had a number of pictures done in a style known as preciosista- very precise painted realism.  Marià Fortuny (1855-1937) led the way.

Mariè Fortuny i Marsal (1838-1874), Bullfight. Wounded Picador c. 1867

Vicente Palmaroli (1834-1896), Hide and Seek

Rainmundo de Madrazo y Garreta (1841-1920), Leaving the Masked Ball, c. 1885

Emilio Sala Francés (1850-1910), Girl with Flowers, 1906

Antonio Maria Reyna Manescau (1859-1937), Venice

Guillermo Gómez Gil (1862-1942), View of the Port of Málaga, 1896

There was a small room with a number of Old Masters, part of the permanent collection.

Entrance to small room of Old Masters

Francisco de Zubarán (1598-1664) St. Marina c. 1640-1650

Antónimo castellano, Pair of Angels Flying c. 1670-1700

View from the top floor of the Gallery

The final room of the permanent collection was called Fin-De siècle in which Spanish artists "abandoned forms and modes of the past in order to create new ones" that would lay the ground for the birth of modern art.

Dario de Regoyos y Valdés (1857-1913), The Concha, Night-time, c. 1906

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923), Courtyard of the Casa Sorolla, 1917

Cecilio Pla Gallardo (1859-1934), The Verbena (Open-Air Dance)

Antonio Muñoz Degrrain (1840-1924), Seascape. View of the Bay of Palma de Mallorca, c. 1905-1910

Enrique Martinez Cubells (1874-1947), La Puerta del Sol, Madrid, 1902

Ramon Casas i Carbó (1866-1932), Julia, c. 1915

Julio Romero de Torres (1874-1930), The Fortune-telling, 1920

Gustavo Barcarisas (1872-1971), Fair

There was a small exhibit called Toulouse-Lautrec y El Circo (Toulouse-Lautrec and the Circus).  In the early 1880s, Lautrec (1864-1901) frequented the Cirque Fernando, the most popular circus in Paris.  He produced a large number of works with circus themes. In 1899, he was interred at a sanatorium.  Encouraged by his childhood friend Maurice Joyant, he made a series of 39 pencil drawings on circus themes from memory to prove his good mental condition and capability for work. Joyant kept his friend's drawings and published them in two facsimile series following the artist's death; 22 drawings in 1905 and 17 drawings in 1931.

Beautiful ceiling in room with drawings

In the Wings, 1899 [Au cirque, 1931]

The Curtain Call, 1899 [Au cirque, 1905]

Clown Tamer, 1899 [Au cirque, 1905]

Trained Pony and Baboon, 1899 [Au cirque, 1905]

(Female) Clown, 1899 [Au cirque, 1905]

Acrobats, 1899 [Au cirque, 1905]

The second temporary exhibit was entitled:  Fantasia árabe: Pintura Orientalists en España (1860-1900).  It looked at Spanish painting inspired by North Africa during the second half of the 1800s through artists such as Fortuny, Tapiró, Fabrés and Lameyer as well as their French contemporaries.

The first group of paintings focused on the landscape of the Near Orient; the second group on Fascinating Universe (Medina, mosque, café, souk and harems), and the third group on Portraits of This Exoticism (snake charmers, warriors, slaves and beggars).

Marià Fortunty, African Beach 1867

Adolf Seel, A Servant Woman in the Alhambra, 1876

Tomás Moragas, Sketch for 'Arab Café', 1891. (Apparently he never went to North Africa, and used one of Fortuny's paintings of a horse as a model)

Antonio Fabrés, The Snake Charmer, 1899

Rafael Senet, Moor with Musket, 1882

Francesc Masriera, Moorish Girl, c. 1889  (He never went to North Africa)

Josep Tapiró 1836-1913)---- Portrait of a Bride. Tapiró lived in Morocco for over 30 years

Tapiró, Portrait of a Dervish, 1908

View from the top floor of the Museum with a skylight

After our visit to the exhibits, we stopped in the Museum's lovely café for a coffee and Basque cheesecake.

There are some interesting small streets around the museum.  We always find a new one to explore.  We passed one with lovely tiles and a beautiful courtyard.  We saw many of these courtyards when we were in Sevilla, but haven't seen as many in Málaga.

Very lovely tiles and courtyard

On the way back to the apartment we saw the final preparations for Carnaval which kicks off tonight in Constitution Plaza.  Victoria Málaga beer (since 1928) is one of the sponsors.

There were also some people unloading costumes for the event.

Carnaval decorations

Getting set up in the Plaza

We returned to the apartment and then headed down to Constitution Plaza just before 8:00 p.m. for the official opening of Carnaval.

All the decorations on the Main Street lit up

Stage at Constitution Plaza

Neon lights in mask shapes

Greetings and the official kick-off of Carnaval

Big crowd in Plaza-- seats all taken and lots of people standing on the pedestrian street

President of the Carnaval (we think) making introductory remarks

On the stage- singers and others

We didn't stay too long, as we just wanted to see the opening of Carnaval.  We headed back to the apartment, noting some lit masks on another street.

The masks at night

Alano made a delicious meal of our fresh cod (so good), potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, and our Ronda wine (very good).  A relatively quiet, chill day in Málaga.