Lot 51: FRANCISCO MANUEL OLLER (1833-1917)

FRANCISCO MANUEL OLLER (1833-1917) PAISAJE NOCTURNO signed lower left oil on wood panel 11 5/8 by 26 in. 29.5 by 66 cm

Marimar Benítez, Francisco Oller, Un realista del Impresionismo, Ponce, 1983, no. 66, p. 209, illustrated

Collection of Dr. Manuel Zeno Gandía (acquired from the artist)
Hence by desdent to the present owner

Paisaje nocturno is perhaps the only noctural landscape painted by Puerto Rico's iconic nineteenth century painter Francisco Oller. Despite its limited palette its attention to the subtle atmospheric effects and topographic details of the scene reveal Oller's deft use of color and his innate ability to render nature and the ethereality of Caribbean light. Equally significant is the history of this unique painting which was originally in the collection of Oller's friend, the naturalist writer and author of La charca (1894) Manuel Zeno Gandía. La charca eloquently recounts the harsh realities of plantation life among the struggling classes in the late 19υth century, a subject akin to that explored by Oller in his masterpiece El velorio (c. 1863). And thus, it is not unusual that Oller and Zeno Gandía felt a mutual respect for each other's work as both lived through a period of extraordinary transformation on the island and sought to convey the poignancy of that historical moment in their respective work.