Dario De Regoyos

DARIO DE REGOYOS Y VALDÉS (Ribadesella, Asturias, 1857 - Barcelona, 1913)
"Stagecoach of Segovia", 1882.
Oil on cardboard.
Signed, dated and located in the lower margin.
This painting was part of the anthological exhibition of the artist organized by the Fundación La Caixa in 1986-1987 in Madrid and Barcelona, as stated on the exhibition label attached to the back.
Measurements: 30 x 42 cm.

Regoyos executed "La diligencia de Segovia" in 1882, a date in which he traveled through Spain with Emile Verhaeren, a trip whose fruit would be the illustrated edition of "España Negra". The woodcuts of this emblematic book and the present painting share a dark vision, to a certain extent tenebrist, of Spanish society. In this painting, unlike the woodcuts, he does not show scenes of extreme devotion or a particularly impoverished Spain. However, in spite of showing us figures dressed in popular costume, he avoids a purely folklorist vision (rather, he opts for anti-folklorism). The mules are lined up in pairs, and the villagers huddle in small groups or remain isolated under their cloaks and coats. Regoyos knew how to move away from the stereotypes that weighed on the Spanish, associated with Andalusian and gypsy dance. The loose and synthetic brushstroke, combined with a palette of earthy and black tones, prefigures expressionism.

The son of a prominent architect then active in Asturias, Dario de Regoyos was trained in Madrid, at the San Fernando Academy (1878). Soon, induced by his teacher Carlos de Haes and his musician friends, Enrique F. Arbós and Isaac Albéniz, he settled in Brussels (1879), where he became a disciple of Josep Quinaux. In the Belgian capital he came into contact with E. Verhaeren, G. Rodenbach and M. Maeterlinck, a group of young creators who were forging the main Belgian cultural movement of the end of the century, an interest in which he himself would play an eminent role. Thus, he was part of the groups L'Essor (1881-83) and Les XX (1883-93). However, he never took root in any place; even during his Belgian period he frequently returned to Spain, and during the eighties he lived in the Basque Country, where he revitalized the already important local modern artistic school. In 1888 he accompanied the writer Verhaeren on a trip through Spain (he had already done it before with other Belgian companions), which would be the germ of his famous series "España negra" (Black Spain), published in Barcelona in 1899. With this work, Regoyos was a pioneer in Spain of the so-called neoxylography or creative xylography. If during the 1880's he only participated in exhibitions in Belgium and Holland, in the 1890's he would also participate in Paris, taking part regularly in the Salon des Indépendants. From these years he would also show his work in Madrid, Munich and Barcelona, the latter city where his painting was honored in 1894 by the most important figures of modernism. In Belgium, Regoyos was also linked to the society La Libre Esthétique from its origin (1894), an association that gathered in this country the inheritance of the artistic modernity. In 1897 he held his first solo exhibition at the prominent Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris. The second, the following year, would take place at Els Quatre Gats in Barcelona, where he was the artistic director of the magazine "Luz", and from 1900 the range of his exhibitions expanded, his work being shown in Bilbao, Frankfurt, Berlin, The Hague, Venice, Bayonne, San Sebastian, London, Mexico City, Bordeaux and Buenos Aires, among other cities. At the beginning of the 20th century Regoyos intensified his travels, living between Granada and Bilbao. In 1911 he settled in Barcelona, where he died two years later.
He is represented in the Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña in Barcelona, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao and the Gerstenmaier Collection, among many other museums and institutions.