Painting oil on canvas by Spanish artist Juan Alcalde (1918-2020), “Woman and donkey”

Painting by Juan Alcalde (signed right lower corner), Woman and donkey, oil on canvas.

Great soft tones in lilac, blue, off-white and grey.

Dimensions including wooden frame  61 x 74 cm.

About the artist Juan Alcalde (1918 – 2020)

Juan Alcalde was born in Madrid in 1918.

In 1931, Juan Alcalde enrolled in the School of Arts and Crafts in Madrid, and in 1933 he moved on to the prestigious San Fernando School in the same city. Juan Alcalde’s training as a painter was interrupted by the civil war, after which he alternated living between France and Venezuela.

In 1960, he settled permanently in Paris, where Juan Alcalde joined the group of artists from the School of Paris, such as Lobo, Hernando Viñes, and Joaquín Peinado. In the early 1970s, the French government granted the painter Juan Alcalde a studio home in Paris. In 1980, he made his first trip to New York, and in 1983 he returned to Madrid without losing contact with Paris. Shortly after the opening of our gallery in 1979, Juan Alcalde became part of our group of artists.

From 2006 onwards, painter Juan Alcalde paid special attention to the editing and illustration of bibliophile books. In 2016, at over 95 years old, he was awarded the gold medal by the Spanish Association of Painters and Sculptors. Juan Alcalde passed away in Madrid on May 31, 2020.

Landscapes, rural or urban, but solitary, human figures with a tragic air or still lifes, which he calls “cacharros”, make up the bulk of his subject matter, often with a melancholic touch, which are more related to the expressionism practiced in Northern Europe than to the avant-gardes he knew in the city of light. His palette of ochers, blues, grays and, especially, white, which he was able to nuance to infinity, completes his work, a work full of mystery and silence.