Oil On Canvas, “the Reaper”, Ignacio Díaz Olano, 1890.

Oil on canvas, "The Reaper", Ignacio Díaz Olano, 1890.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Ignacio Salvador Díaz Ruiz de Olano (Vitoria, 1860-1937), painter and painting teacher, better known as Ignacio Díaz, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vitoria as a disciple of Emilio Soubrier Martínez, and at La Llotja in Barcelona (1877-1880), where he met his teacher Gustavo Bacaristas. After completing his apprenticeship, he returned to his hometown, where he collaborated with the weekly "El Danzarín" as a cartoonist, under the pseudonym "Galop". In 1890 he moved to Paris, where he stayed for four years to study anatomical drawing and work as a set designer at the Opera (some say it is not entirely certain that he was in Paris). Back in Spain, he participated in the Art and Industrial Exhibition of Vitoria with several works in 1884, the year in which he also opened his own studio in that city, where he carried out remarkable educational work until it closed in 1894 to go to Barcelona. That same year he went to Rome, where he lived for two years. From 1912 to 1913 he also worked as a drawing teacher at the General and Technical Institute, a position he held until he reached the legal retirement age in 1932. Between 1890 and 1925, Díaz participated in several editions of the National Fine Arts Exhibitions, winning a bronze medal in 1895 and a silver medal in 1899 and 1901. His works are preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Fine Arts Museums of Vitoria and Asturias, the Provincial Museum of Álava, the City Hall and the School of Arts and Crafts of Vitoria, in private collections, etc. Many experts have pointed out that the art of Ignacio Díaz was strongly influenced by the fact that the painter spent a lot of time surrounded by his compatriots and neighbors. This is why most of his production consists of oil paintings depicting popular and traditional subjects, portraits, landscapes and flowers, as well as still lifes. The present oil painting is a good example of this: it depicts a reaper, in a half-worked wheat field and with a small sheaf in his hand, who looks towards a point located outside the painting. Likewise, one can appreciate his exceptional sense of observation and his solid training in drawing. In this work, however, one can already see an advance in the presentation of light in his work, fully integrated into his compositions. Parallel to light, and little by little, color penetrates, which also appears in this painting as totally dominated. His search for immediacy will bring the light spot and the chromatic flash and, over time, he will approach naturalist impressionism without entering it completely, maintaining his personality and formal differences. -
Dimensions: 108 x 72 cm;