Domingo Ramos

DOMINGO RAMOS ENRÍQUEZ (Cuba, 1894 - 1956).
"Landscape with road".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower margin.
It presents damages in the frame.
Measurements: 91 x 55 cm; 107 x 70 cm (frame).

Domingo Ramos Enríquez was born in Güines. From early ages he manifested his vocation for painting and had the opportunity to study in Havana, in the Academy of San Alejandro. He became popular after a contest organized by Bohemia magazine in 1912; later he received a pension from the Cuban government to continue his studies in Madrid, at the San Fernando Academy. He perfected his art from the classes he received at the Academy and from an extensive tour of Europe and its network of pictorial trends, and in 1919 he exhibited in Barcelona several landscapes of the Spanish geography, very well received by the public. In 1921 he was back on the Island, where he presented an exhibition of 41 paintings, remarkable in their execution. Although he was a painter of international projections, as a landscape painter he did not cease to capture the autochthonous; in this sense, during all his artistic growth, he would be accompanied by the peculiar Pinar del Río geography, as exemplified by pieces such as El valle de Viñales, Nocturno, Mogotes de La Costanera, Siembra de Viñales, La sierra principal, Ensenada de Palmarito, Las dos hermanas and Sierra del Cuajaní. In turn, the Havana landscape would be reflected in the paintings El río Almendares, El bosque, Habana, Alrededores de Puentes Grandes, Río Piloña de La Habana and Los Colosos, among others. Shortly after, in 1923, an exhibition of thirty-eight works by Domingo Ramos was shown in a local of the Diario de la Marina, among these were some also inspired by the western landscape of the Island, the Pinar and Havana pictorial: Afternoon in the Valley, Autumn in Viñales, Sunset, Peñas de Viñales, Cueva del Espejo, Remanso del río San Vicente, Lomas de Santo Tomás and Golden Afternoon. This exhibition contributed to consolidate his prestige as a creator. In 1838, one of his large landscapes presided over the Cuban exhibit presented at the New York Fair. The mogotes of the Sierra de los Órganos, in full sunset, were captured by the artist with particular mastery and creative emotion, on the occasion of this international event. It is said that the painting was one of the most attractive for the public that attended the event, dazzled by the exuberance of Cuban nature. Domingo Ramos' rural landscapes would mark a milestone in Cuban plastic art and in the later projections of many of our artists.