This morning, Tuesday 27 September, María del Mar Villafranca, general manager of Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife (PAG) and Pedro Benzal, government of Andalusia cultural delegate in Granada, launched the exhibition Granada, destination of artists, a selection of works from the PAG fine arts collection, some never before shown and recently included in the collection. At the launch, Villafranca and Benzal underlined the interest of both institutions in holding the event on World Tourism Day, this year being held under the theme Tourism – Linking Cultures, Granada and the Alhambra being internationally-acclaimed tourist destinations.
The exhibition is being hosted by Granada Museum of Fine Arts as part of the Guest Piece programme, held in collaboration with other institutions and private collections.
Thanks to the collaboration between PAG and the Museum of Fine Arts, Room VI of the Museum now holds a selection of works featuring the Alhambra from the Alhambra collection, including Plaza de los Aljibes de la Alhambra (1833), by John Frederick Lewis (1805-1876), Alhambra (1910), by Aureliano de Beruete y Moret (1845-1912), Arabs in a courtyard, by François Antoine Bossuet (1800-1889), La Alhambra (1932) by Ismael de la Serna (1895-1968) and The Palace of Carlos V by Santiago Rusiñol i Prats (1861-1931), in addition to other paintings featuring Granada from the Museum’s permanent collection.
The paintings are a fair reflection of the fascination exercised by Granada, in general, and the Alhambra, in particular, over artists, particularly the romantic travellers, continuing throughout the 19th century and much of the 20th, and including such well-known artists as Fortuny, Sargent, Sorolla and Matisse, to whom PAG dedicated a monographic exhibition last year.