San Justo and Toledo Hills

Catalogue entry

T03264 SAN MIGUEL, TOLEDO: MORNING 1929

Inscribed ‘Bomberg 29’ bottom left, on stretcher ‘No 15 St. Miguel’ (partly illegible), on a canvas label ‘No 15 San Miguel-Toledo: Morning. David Bomberg Toledo 1929’ and a paper label ‘San Justo and Toledo Hills - Spain. 1929. Price £25. David Bomberg, 17 Greville Place, St. Johns Wood, NW6’
Oil on canvas, 13 1/4 × 17 1/4 (38.4 × 43.7)
Presented in memory of David Bomberg by Mr and Mrs J. Newmark through the CAS1981

'San Miguel’ was painted during Bomberg's first visit to Spain, in 1929. He left London in August and returned in April 1930, having also visited Morocco and the Greek islands after Spain. Paintings from this tour were exhibited at the Bloomsbury Gallery in November 1932, the catalogue listing twelve works from Spain, all of them landscape subjects in Toledo. ‘San Miguel’ was not included as it had already been given to his sister Kitty (Mrs Newmark) in 1931. Another oil ‘Hills in Mist, San Miguel, Toledo’ 1929 is illustrated in colour in William Lipke, David Bomberg, 1967 (pl.V), and two other views of San Miguel are listed in the Bloomsbury Gallery catalogue (no.6 as ‘The Convent of San Miguel, Toledo’ and no.9 as ‘San Miguel’).

Although this picture has a label on the back inscribed ‘San Justo and Toledo Hills’, and was given to the Tate under this title, the church is undoubtedly the Convent of San Miguel. A recent photograph (kindly taken by the Marquesa de Portugalete) shows the church and the hills behind, including the winding road on the left, much as they are in the painting.

Bomberg visited Spain again in 1934–5, staying mainly in Ronda, and finally at the end of his life lived at Ronda from 1954 to 1957.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984

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