MADRID.- The Museo Nacional del Prado has reunited, for the first time, a remarkable group of eight paintings in which Valeriano Domínguez Bécquer captured the clothing, celebrations, labor and religious traditions of 19th-century Spain.
Presented under the title Valeriano D. Bécquer (1834–1870): Paintings of Popular Customs, the exhibition brings together works commissioned for the former Museo de la Trinidad and later dispersed among different institutions. The series is now on view in Gallery 60 as part of the Prado’s “Open Storage” program, an initiative devoted to revealing new perspectives on the museum’s 19th-century collections.
Bécquer completed the paintings between 1866 and 1867, traveling through Zaragoza, Soria and Ávila in search of scenes that reflected the everyday customs of rural Spain. Rather than presenting these communities as picturesque curiosities, he approached his subjects with unusual directness and dignity. The Prado considers the series one of the finest examples of Spanish genre painting of the period and an important chapter in the development of realism in the country.
The project began after Bécquer received a royal pension on February 6, 1865, to produce paintings for the Museo de la Trinidad. That support ended in 1868 following the overthrow of Queen Isabella II. After the museum was dissolved, the works entered the Prado’s collection, but the group began to be separated in 1877 when individual paintings were placed on long-term deposit at other institutions.
Their reunion offers visitors a rare opportunity to see the series as Bécquer originally conceived it.
An especially valuable aspect of the exhibition is the survival of the artist’s own written descriptions of the paintings. The documentation has been preserved in full, allowing the Prado to incorporate excerpts into the presentation and provide a closer understanding of Bécquer’s intentions, observations and working process.
A visual journey through Zaragoza, Soria and Ávila
Bécquer delivered the commission in three groups, each devoted to a different province and produced in varying formats and dimensions. The Zaragoza and Soria paintings were completed in 1866, while the Ávila group followed in 1867.
The first delivery, sent from Vera del Moncayo, included Interior of a House in an Aragonese Village, When the Family Gathers in the Afternoon to Drink Chocolate and The Present: Patron Saint Festival in Moncayo, Aragón.
In the domestic interior, women occupy the center of the composition, as they frequently do throughout Bécquer’s work, including in scenes of labor. The artist paid close attention to the richly colored regional clothing, turning the painting into both a record of local life and an intimate study of family routine.
The Present expands the view to a public celebration, bringing together figures ranging from the mayor to traditional dancers. The work records practices such as paloteo, a folk dance performed with wooden sticks, as well as the communal meal known as the presente, ágape or puñado, traditionally financed by a member of the religious brotherhood organizing the festivities.
The three paintings devoted to Soria are regarded as the strongest group in the series. They are also closely connected to the personal lives of Valeriano and his brother, the celebrated poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.
Produced after travels through Villaciervos and Burgo de Osma, the group includes The Dance, A Woodcutter near Burgo de Osma and A Spinner near Burgo de Osma. In the two individual portraits, the physical hardship of forest labor is balanced by the care and respect with which Bécquer presents his subjects. The Dance, meanwhile, allowed him to fill the composition with a broad range of figures, costumes and carefully observed details.
For the Ávila paintings, Bécquer turned to the pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Sonsoles in the Amblés Valley. The scenes include pilgrims resting beside a fountain, a young woman carrying a basket of offerings for the Virgin and a man standing near a wine stall. His clothing recalls that worn by the armados or alabarderos, ceremonial figures who appear in religious festivals across Castile.
Drawings that carried Bécquer’s work to a wider audience
Bécquer also produced numerous drawings during his travels. Although many have been lost, some survive through photographs, while others were transformed into engravings and published in illustrated magazines.
These reproductions ultimately circulated more widely than the paintings themselves, helping introduce Bécquer’s realistic vision to a new generation of artists and readers. Some of his compositions were also copied in oil or translated into print, evidence of the strong interest his work inspired during and after his lifetime.
The exhibition continues the evolving role of Gallery 60, which since 2009 has served as a flexible space for the Prado’s 19th-century holdings. Over the years, it has hosted presentations devoted to artists including Joaquín Sorolla, Eduardo Rosales, Francisco Pradilla and Federico and José de Madrazo, as well as displays examining watercolor, Japanese prints, photography, religious painting and childhood portraiture.
With the adoption of the “Open Storage” name in 2026, the gallery now offers a renewed framework for bringing lesser-seen works into public view. The reunion of Bécquer’s eight paintings demonstrates the value of that approach, restoring a historically significant series while revealing a vivid portrait of Spanish life during a period of profound social and political change.
