In the 19th century, Spain aroused considerable interest among foreign travellers, who found in its monuments, its traditions and its ways of life an exotic and picturesque image, evocative of a past that seemed to resist the advance of modernity.
In the context of Romanticism, the Middle Ages and popular customs became objects of fascination, and our country, especially Andalusia, became a privileged destination for those who sought to discover other worlds without leaving Europe.
Through the photographs preserved in the collection of the Museo Nacional del Romanticismo, Un viaje pintoresco explores how the first photographers helped to construct and disseminate this romantic image of Spain, heir to the accounts and illustrations of travel books.
The exhibition brings together 43 works – 39 photographs, two lithographs, one drawing and one stereoscopic viewer – arranged in three sections.
Ecos de la arquitectura del pasado presents images of monuments and historic cities made by photographers such as Pierre Émile Pécarrère, Charles Clifford and Jean Laurent, who found in photography a tool for documenting and disseminating Spanish heritage.
Tipos populares explores the interest in traditional dress and costumbrista scenes, with images that reflect both the diversity of Spanish society and the romantic gaze projected onto it.
Finally, Coleccionar vistas discovers the popularity of stereoscopic photography, whose three-dimensional images allowed viewers to travel to distant places from their own homes. Together, these works invite reflection on the role of photography in constructing the romantic imagery of Spain and on the complex relationship between the reality of the country and the vision its visitors offered of it.
© Ministerio de Cultura - Gobierno de España