"Emigrants" notebook

18 x 24.5 cm (0.6 cm spine). 40 sheets (80 pages).

From 1886 peninsular emigration to America experienced a strong boost and became a recurring theme in the painting of the time. At first, the depictions had a certain emotional character, but with the introduction of photography, a faithful reflection of reality, the works mutated and became more objective. The work reproduced on the cover of this notebook, Emigrants (1908) by Ventura Álvarez Sala, belongs to this second phase. The naturalness of the attitudes of the numerous characters, the sobriety of the colouring, and the execution, accurate and in keeping with the unity of the painting, made this one of the works that best reflects the reality of emigration.