- Type of work: Painting on paper
- Technique: Watercolor on paper
- Approximate dimensions: 83 x 69,5 cm
- Subject: Landscape
- Title: Realejo Alto I, Tenerife
- Author: Francisco Bonnin Guerín (1874-1963)
- Chronology or Year: 1933
- Historical-artistic analysis:
Style: Landscape painting, in direct contact with nature (plenairist), within the regionalism of the time, following expressionist guidelines.
Description: A rural landscape is represented in which a dirt road in the foreground, flanked on the right by three earthen houses, connects with a second section, this time with houses on the left, which leads to a mountain in the background, whose slopes are half-hidden by clouds descending from a blue sky. Giving color and the stain, which extends over the surface, an unprecedented freedom, the fundamental lines of the drawing are now marked by the vigorous stroke of the brush that with the color delimits the outline of the objects, replacing the neat and precise touch of the previous stage.
Date of receipt: After 1934
Observations: In 1964 Valeriano Weyler cites five watercolors by Bonnín with landscapes of the island adorning the mezzanine of the casino, along with other paintings and the sculpture of the Mercury.
About the author: Francisco Bonnín Guerín (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1874- Puerto de la Cruz, 1963) began his training with Ubaldo Bordanova as a student at the Municipal Academy of Drawing, being Verdugo Bartlett (1860-1895) the one who introduced him to the watercolor technique. He studied the military career in Segovia, entering in 1897, and since then he has alternated his military career with painting. In his first stage (around 1915) his watercolors are of small format, with great meticulousness in the rendering of details. In 1923 he went to Girona as a commander and came into contact with the Agrupación de Acuarelistas de Cataluña. On his return to Tenerife, he promoted the creation of the Círculo de Bellas Artes, where he established a drawing and painting academy in 1928. In 1927 and 1928 he held two exhibitions in the Circle with which he introduced the Agrupación de Acuarelistas de Cataluña in the Canary Islands, sowing the seed of the Agrupación de Acuarelelistas Tinerfeños, created in 1944. Between 1931-35 he developed his expressionist stage under the influence of Bruno Brandt, stripping himself of the excessive draftsmanship and giving the stain and color a greater freedom. The decade 1936-46 is the decade of diffusion and greater recognition of his work. With a luminous and colorful painting he became known in Switzerland, England and in many cities of the Peninsula, receiving the National Watercolor Prize in 1942. He increased his prestige by exhibiting in Madrid at the Palace of Santa Cruz, headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1945 and 1946, and was named academician of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1947, year in which the Agrupación de Acuarelistas Canarios was born under his presidency.
Bibliography:
Archive of the Casino de Tenerife. Documents relating to the composition of the Board in the early 1900s.
Carmen GONZÁLEZ COSSÍO: Francisco Bonnín. Viceconsejería de Cultura y Deportes del Gobierno de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1993.
Valeriano WEYLER: The small history of a great casino (The one in Santa Cruz de Tenerife). Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1964.
Agustín GUIMERÁ RAVINA, Alberto DARIAS PRÍNCIPE: El Casino de Tenerife 1840 – 1990, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1992.
