The Permanent Collection of the Museum comprises an outstanding collection of works that offers a coherent and comprehensive survey of the principal genres within 19th-century Spanish painting, with a particular emphasis on Andalusian painting.

This section features important examples of the two principal themes depicted in Spanish Romantic painting during the first half of the 19th century. The vision of Spain conveyed by artists was in fact determined by the foreign travellers of the Romantic era who visited the country at that time. The way that Spanish painters interpreted the urban and natural landscape and traditional customs, seen from the viewpoint of a fascination with the exotic and the unknown, influenced the evolution of both genres in the early decades of the century.

The origins of Spanish Romantic landscape painting lie in the picturesque genre compositions and view paintings that were produced throughout the 18th century. Within Spain, depictions of the overpowering force of nature so favoured by the Romantics were tenoered by the introduction of other element that introduced a more agreeable note and which became as important as the landscape itself. The work of manuel barron offers a good example of this approach.

Particularly outstanding within this tradition is the work of Genaro Perez Villaamil. His cosmopolitan training led to a sublime concept of landscape involving an interest in the depiction of historical monuments, which he aimed to record with documentary accuracy as well as in a picturesque mode, as in The Chapel of the Benavente Family in Medina de Rioseca.

Romantic travellers were also responsible for the success of picturesque genre painting and Andalusia became the quintessential Romantic image of Spain. Its history, Moorish architecture, gypsies, flamenco, bulls, bandits and religious processions gripped the imagination of writers and artists of the day. This cliched image of Andalusia disseminated by the Romantics had a profound influence on Spanish painters, anxious to establish and develop their own artisitic indentity while also willing to satisy the demands of the tourist market. The resulting works were generally snall-format paintings that were easy to handle and transport, depicting the sujects that most appealed to foreign travellers.

Within the museums sizeable collection of andalusian genre paintings, there are particularly notable examples by menbers of the Dominguez Becquer and Cabral Aguado Bejarano families. The work of other artists including Hose Himenez Aranda, Jos Garcia Ramos and Ricardo Lopez Cabrera focuses on the same subjects but reveals the transition from Romantie genre painting to an exquisitely painted realism of a type known as preciosista.

Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga
The Carmen Thyssen Museum (Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga) is an art museum in the Spanish city Málaga. The main focus of the museum is 19th-century Spanish painting, predominantly Andalusian, based on the collection of Carmen Cervera, third wife of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Carmen Thyssen Museum are a museum dedicated to conservation, research and the dissemination of the Carmen Thyssen Collection in order to emphasize the value of Spanish painting, especially that of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fully referenced in its historical and artistic context, for the understanding of all audiences, which forms part of Malaga’s strategy as a cultural city.

Carmen Thyssen Museum aim to become an international benchmark for our contribution to nineteenth century art in Spain, through the conservation of our Permanent Collection and temporary exhibitions that facilitate their interpretation. In addition, for our emphasis on the value of the Roman archaeological site, for our dynamic cross-cutting programme of cultural and educational activities dedicated especially to younger audiences, and for an approach that is always open to collaboration with other cultural and social institutions.

Furthermore, for our model of museum management focused on the commitment to better service to our different stakeholders, as well as the incorporation of new technologies, and a comprehensive vision of the space, from a design perspective, incorporating complementary uses and comfort. The gallery offers more virtual exhibitions that can be viewed for free on its website. Note that these virtual exhibit needs to allow the Falsh plugin.