A Spanish Garden

Inscription: Signed (lower right): RICO

Stephen Whitney Phoenix, New York (until d. 1881)

St. Petersburg, Fla. Museum of Fine Arts. "Spanish 19th Century Painters," January 15–February 18, 1973, no catalogue? [possibly included].

Jacksonville, Fla. Cummer Gallery of Art. "Spanish 19th Century Painters," March 6–April 8, 1973, no catalogue?

New York Cultural Center. "Grand Reserves," October 24–December 8, 1974, no. 108 (as "An Italian Garden").

Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado. "El paisajista Martín Rico (1833–1908)," October 30, 2012–February 10, 2013, no. 20.

Dallas. Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University. "Impressions of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Vistas by Martín Rico," March 10–July 7, 2013, no. 20.

A[lfred]. G[eorge]. Temple. Modern Spanish Painting; being a review of some of the chief painters and paintings of the Spanish school since the time of Goya. London, 1908, p. 47.

Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 300, calls it "An Italian Garden".

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 84.

Mme Claude Rico-Robert. Letter to Mrs. Rizzo. January 31, 1977, suggests that it represents not an Italian garden but a Spanish one, and that it must have been painted in Seville, Granada, or Toledo.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 167, ill., as "A Spanish Garden".

Claude Rico Robert in Impressions of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Vistas by Martín Rico. Ed. Javier Barón. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Dallas, 2013, p. 32 [Spanish ed., "El paisajista Martín Rico [1833–1908]," Madrid, 2012, p. 31], notes the influence of Mariano Fortuny's paintings on this picture.

Javier Barón et al. in Impressions of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Vistas by Martín Rico. Ed. Javier Barón. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Dallas, 2013, pp. 162–64, 166, no. 20, ill. (color) [Spanish ed., "El paisajista Martín Rico [1833–1908]," Madrid, 2012, pp. 160–62, 164, no. 21, ill. (color)], date the work 1871 and ascribe it to Rico's painting campaign in Granada; reproduce a photograph from Rico's collection of the fountain in the Patio de la Lindaraja in the Alhambra and note that the fountain in The Met's picture is very similar; state that Rico probably consulted the photograph for the painting; find the source of the loggia, however, in a ground-floor loggia at the Convent of Santa Isabel la Real and discuss alterations Rico made to the architecture; state that he painted it in mid-winter, citing a letter he wrote with Ricardo de Madrazo to Federico de Madrazo, Granada, [January] 14, [1871], in the Archivo Madrazo, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; compare it to similar subjects he painted in Granada, including a watercolor with a similar composition in a private collection; associate it with "Patio de Sta. Ysabel" in Rico's Notebook of Sales of 1871, sold to Leroy.

Impressions of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Vistas by Martín Rico. Ed. Javier Barón. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Dallas, 2013, p. 285 [Spanish ed., "El paisajista Martín Rico [1833–1908]," Madrid, 2012, p. 271], among the works in Rico's notebook of sales from 1871 includes "Patio de Sta. Catalina" and "Patio de Sta. Ysabel," one of which might be this picture.