Louis Quintanilla Drypoint: "Interior de un tranvia en Madrid" ("Interior of a Streetcar in Madrid")

Notes

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

The Pierre Matisse Gallery Catalogue # = not ncluded in catalogue, but referred to as "Railway" in the gallery's correspondence†
The Universidad de Cantabria "Luis Quintanilla" catalogue # = 5

†(Of the forty-one drypoints in what has become known as the Hemingway Collection, this is one of two not included in the 1934 Pierre Matisse Gallery Catalogue. The other is Diversiones burguesas.

Nevertheless, Interior de un tranvia en Madrid was probably offered for sale during the Pierre Matisse sale because in a letter to Hemingway tallying the sale's results, the gallery specifies that two prints they call "Railway" were sold. A reasonable surmise is that "Railway" was the gallery's way of identifying Interior de un tranvia en Madrid. (unpublished letter, Dec. 12, 1934, Pierre Matisse Gallery Archives, The Morgan Library, New York ). Why "Railway" was not included in the Pierre Matisse catalogue, even though the gallery apparently had and sold impressions of it, remains unknown.

**Title:

The Spanish title, Interior de un tranvia en Madrid, appears in the artist's hand in pencil on at least one impression beneath the plate mark, l.l. (See Fig. 1 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 BNE catalogue uses "[El Metro]".

Burdett (272) uses the English, "Inside a Tram."

"The English, "Interior of a Tram" appears in an unknown hand at the bottom of the sheet of one observed impression, probably created for The AAA exhibition of 1939 "Luis Quintanilla."

The Universidad de Cantabria 2005 exhibition catalogue "Luis Quintanilla" and FBA use the title "Metro."

The English "Interior of a Streetcar in Madrid" appears on no impression and is our translation of Quintanilla's title.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

***Date: No date appears on any of the observed impressions of this print. BNE uses1934 based on unspecified data. 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.

For a discussion of the factors involved, visit the "Medium" section of "Using This Catalogue Raisonné."

*****Edition: Quintanilla and his printer were inconsistent in their manner of numbering.

One impression is inscribed below the plate mark, l.l., "n° - 5-"; (see Fig. 2 above).

The FBA impression is inscribed below the plate mark, l.l., "n° 6"

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 one unnumbered impression bearing a title instead of the number, l.l. (See Fig. 1 above.)

Reproduced in: Burdett (272); "Luis Quintanilla" (Universidad de Cantabria) (40)