Antonio Muñoz Degrain Exhibition

A handful of paintings, an unassuming display case, a hidden room in the Edificio Villanueva. Sometimes no more is needed to illuminate a figure buried by time. The Museo del Prado recovers the work of painter Antonio Muñoz Degrain with an exhibition that does not seek spectacle, but quiet rediscovery.

Visitors will find ten canvases that defy labels. Vivid landscapes, almost theatrical scenes, compositions in which colour seems to sound. Half of these works have recently been restored, making it possible to see clearly a vibrant technique, at times uncontrollable, deeply personal. There is no academicism: there is fury, emotion, freedom. Alongside the paintings, documents are displayed that humanise the artist. His admission speech at the Real Academia de San Fernando, where he defended sincerity as the compass of art; a donated drawing that does not seek to show off, but moves the viewer; and the photograph of a portrait that shows him grave, almost absent.

This exhibition forms part of the Prado’s programme to give visibility to its 19th-century painting collection, too extensive for the usual spotlight. Instead of major retrospectives, small capsules like this open cracks through which the forgotten reappear. And among them, few are as difficult to classify, and therefore as contemporary, as Muñoz Degrain.