Scenes with back lighting and twilight – so directly opposed to the former luminarism – were also to become defining features of his work. The men and women of those places provided him with that intimate character that allowed him to step away from the picturesqueness which was so important in Madrid painting and the radiance of the Levante beach scenes popular due, more than to any other artist, to Joaquín Sorolla, and held in such high esteem. Martínez Cubells's main source of inspiration in those years, however, were Bay of Biscay and Brittany port scenes, and through these he made himself a name as an artist. From that time on, the image of the square and its surroundings changed considerably with the area towards Carrera de San Jerónimo filling with cafés and becoming an essential rendezvous for writers, actors and artists. In both cases the painter immortalised Madrid's image after the electrification of the Sol-Serrano tramline on 3 October 1898. One belongs to the Museo Municipal de Madrid, and was acquired from the painter's widow, Josefina Gargallo Moreno, in 1951,3 while the other, naturally, is this magnificent canvas. It is noteworthy how in just five years he followed a path from pessimistic social realism – evident in An Accident, a picture which received a mention third-class at the 1897 National Exhibition – to urban landscapes painted with nimble, dynamic strokes. It reflects both the cosmopolitan spirit characteristic of the artist's personality and, above all, his "European years", as well as the success of his most personal style of painting. The painting is one of a series of (little-known) urban views by the artist, painted on his return from one of his many European journeys of between 19. As the date at lower right indicates, it was finished two years before it was sent to the exhibition. Puerta del Sol, Madrid was featured in the official exhibition catalogue1 as number 769 and measured the same (75 x 96.5 cm) as this canvas from the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga Collection acquired at auction in Madrid in 1998. Documentary evidence proves that the artist Enrique Martínez Cubells submitted a canvas entitled Puerta del Sol, Madrid at the 1904 National Exhibition of Fine Arts together with fifteen other works, and that for one of these – Work, Rest, Family – he received a medal first-class.
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