The Alhambra lends the picture “Palace of Charles V” by Rusiñol to the Granada Fine Arts Museum

The picture entitled ‘Palace of Charles V’ (Palacio de Carlos V), painted in oil on canvas between 1895 and 1900 by the Catalan artist Santiago Rusiñol i Prats (1861-1931), is now on display until 30th March in in Room VI of the Granada Fine Arts Museum, which is devoted to Granada in Art.
In view of the fact that the painting ‘View of the Alhambra’ by Antonio Muñoz Degrain owned by the Museum of Malaga and deposited at the Granada Fine Arts Museum had been loaned to the Alhambra for display in the exhibition ‘Art and Cultures of al-Andalus. The Power of the Alhambra’, the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife decided to temporarily lend this work by the Catalan painter as guest exhibit at the Granada Fine Arts Museum.
The canvas, which belongs to the collections from the Angel Barrios Museum was discovered some years ago stuck to the back of another canvas by the artist Manuel Ángeles Ortiz with a portrait of the musician Angel Barrios. Rusiñol’s picture is an unfinished painting of the main façade of the Palace of Charles V showing the state of the building at the end of the 19th Century. The Palace was as yet unfinished as can be seen by the fact that through the windows you can see both the sky and the vegetation that apparently grew inside the palace walls.
Rusiñol visited Granada and the Alhambra on several occasions and was a regular at the Polinario, a tavern that was popular with the artistic fraternity and was run by Angel Barrios’ father, Antonio Barrios. It was in this artistic atmosphere that this painting was created. Like the rest of his work, it is marked by a profound symbolism as witnessed by the way he represents the gardens.