Spanish school (XX) - Grapes and basket in the golden light

Grapes and Basket to the Golden Light

Technical sheet

Author: Spanish school, mid-20th century (signed 'J. Rodríguez')
Grapes and Basket to the Golden Light
Chronology: c. 1940–1960
Technique: oil on canvas
Measurements: 54 × 73 cm
Support: Stretched canvas on a frame.
Style: Spanish realism with baroque heritage
Condition: Very good; slight superficial patina consistent with its age.

2. Compositional and iconographic description

The work presents a wine still life of extraordinary technical meticulousness: a demijohn covered with esparto and an open basket spilling clusters of white and purple grapes. The artist constructs volumes through a warm, almost theatrical light that models each grain with optical precision and transparency effects.

The dark background, of tenebrist tradition, creates a powerful contrast with the honeyed yellow of the table and the damp shine of the grapes.

The composition, balanced between verticals (damajuana) and diagonals (overturned basket), evokes the still lifes of the Golden Age and the naturalist painting of Luis Egidio Meléndez or Zurbarán, reinterpreted from the academic sensibility of the 20th century.

3. Style, Context, and Comparisons

The work is part of the Spanish still life school, inheritor of the Baroque optical fidelity but reinterpreted through the technical serenity of the mid-20th century. The care for the texture of esparto, the botanical accuracy of the bunches, and the luminous clarity recall contemporary painters such as Antonio González Vera, Álvarez de Sotomayor, or certain Valencian realists of the postwar period.

It is a high-quality executive canvas, solid in its drawing and excellent in its chromatic modulation, ideal for collectors of Spanish still life and traditional figurative painting.