Louis Quintanilla Drypoint: "Tranquilidad" ("Tranqiullity")

Notes

*Catalogue Entry #: For numbering used in other catalogues, see below.

The Pierre Matisse Gallery Catalogue # = 3
The Universidad de Cantabria "Luis Quintanilla" catalogue # = 7

The Spanish title, Tranquilidad, appears in the artist's hand in pencil on at least one impression beneath the plate mark, l.l. (See below.)

The only known impressions bearing titles in the artist's hand for Madrid Series prints are in the Hemingway Collection and carry their titles l.l. where the numbering normally appears.

The English "Tranquiltiy" is our translation of Quintanilla's title and does not appear on any impression.

The Pierre Matisse Gallery exhibition catalogue (1934) also uses the title Tranquilidad.

The 2005 Universidad de Cantabria exhibition catalogue "Luis Quintanilla" and FBA use the title "Sueño" (Dream).

Fig. 1

fig. 2

***Date: No date appears on any of the observed impressions of this print. Of the dates that appear on works in the Hemingway Collection, which includes this print, none is earlier than 1931 and none later than 1934. Quintanilla started making drypoints, in fact prints in general, with Adolfo Ruperez, the printer of all the prints in the Madrid Series, sometime after the artist's return to Madrid in 1929. (See Biographical Chronology.)

The one known exception to the range of dates specified in the paragraph just above is entry # I.

****Medium: A final determination for the medium has not been made.

*****Edition:

At least one impression is annotated below the plate mark, l.l., "7 - P. no 2"; p=prueba (proof) (see Fig. 1 above).
An unnumbered impression is dedicated, l.l. (See Dedication and Fig. 3 below)
Ruperez typically printed ten or fewer (most commonly 7-10) of Quintanilla's Madrid Series prints, often including at least one unnumbered impression outside the edition.
- The Hemingway Collection typically includes at least one unnumbered impression bearing a title instead of the number, l.l. (See Fig. 1 above.)

Dedication:

One impression which is neither titled nor numbered is inscribed, l.l., in pencil in the artist's hand, “a Jan -- mi primera prueba de amor” ("To Jan -- my first proof of love"). Jan is his future wife whom he met in Madrid in 1933-4, when she, an American student in Spain, was working for the American ambassador, Claude Bowers. Presumably this "peueba" (proof) is dedicated to her. The dedication can be read in several ways given the possible pun on the work "prueba." Proof can refer to the print itself, which makes it the first time he has been inspired to create a print (proof) by love. And/or it can mean that the impression is intended as a gift to Jan signifying proof of this love for her. They eventually married in Greenwich, Connecticut, on February 21, 1939. (For further commentary on their meeting, courtship and marriange, see Quintanilla, Paul. Waiting at the Shore, Vol. I, 230-4, and Vol. II.)

Fig. 3.