OIL ON CANVAS, “THE REAPER”, IGNACIO DÍAZ OLANO, 1890.

Oil on canvas, "The reaper", Ignacio Díaz Olano, 1890. Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Ignacio Salvador Díaz Ruiz de Olano (Vitoria, 1860-1937), painter and teacher of painters and better known as Ignacio Díaz, studied at the Vitoria Academy of Fine Arts as a disciple of Emilio Soubrier Martínez, and at the Llotja de Barcelona (1877 -1880), where he met his teacher Gustavo Bacaristas. After completing his apprenticeship, he returned to his hometown, where he collaborated in the weekly "El Danzarín" as a cartoonist, under the pseudonym "Galop". Then, in 1890, he moved to Paris, where he stayed for four years studying anatomical drawing, and did set design work for the Opera House (there are those who argue that it is not entirely certain that he was in Paris, however). . Upon returning to Spain, he participated in the Vitoria Artistic and Industrial Exhibition with various works in 1884, the year in which he also opened his own studio in this city, where he carried out outstanding didactic work until it closed in 1894 to go to Barcelona. In this same year he would travel to Rome, where he lived for two years. From 1912-1913 he would also work as a drawing teacher at the General and Technical Institute, work that he carried out until he reached the statutory retirement age in 1932. Between 1890 and 1925 Díaz participated in multiple editions of the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, obtaining a bronze medal in 1895 and a silver medal in 1899 and 1901. His work is preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Fine Arts Museum in Vitoria and Asturias, the Provincial Museum in Álava, the City Hall and the School of Arts and Crafts in Vitoria, private collections, etc. Numerous experts have highlighted that the art of Ignacio Díaz is greatly influenced by the fact that the painter remained surrounded by his countrymen and neighbors for a long time. This led to the fact that most of the production consisted of oil paintings of popular and costumbrist subjects, portraits, landscapes and flowers, and still lifes. The present oil painting is a clear example: it shows a reaper, in a half-worked wheat field and with a small sheaf in his hand, looking towards a point located outside the painting. Likewise, you can also appreciate his exceptional observation skills and his solid drawing training. In this work, however, progress is already noticeable in presenting light in his compositions, totally integrated in his work. Hand in hand with light, and little by little, color penetrated, which is also presented in this painting as totally dominated. His search for immediacy will bring the luminous spot and the chromatic flash and, over time, he moved closer to naturalistic impressionism without fully entering into this style to maintain his personality and his formal differences.

· Size: 108 x 72 cm; 110 x 74 cm (marco)