1905
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Souvenir of Seville is a 1905 by Charles Conder, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A painted fan unfurls across the frame—bright oranges, deep blues, and a crowd of tiny figures in a Spanish street. Conder made this on silk during a trip to Seville with his wife. The fan’s bold colors feel almost modern, but the scene is pure old-world pageantry. It’s like a postcard from a dream of Spain, not the real thing. If you like this light, airy style, look up the technique called *sfumato*.
As famous for his watercolors on silk as he was for his self-destructive lifestyle, Charles Conder belonged to a generation that the poet W. B. Yeats called "the last Romantics." His delicately tinted watercolors seem like fragments of a lost era, conjuring an imaginary world of beauty, leisure, and luxury. This painted fan was made on a trip to Spain that Conder took with his wife, Stella Maris, to witness the celebration and pageantry of Holy Week and Easter. Its bold color and dynamic composition memorialized a period of health and happiness spent in the Mediterranean.
Charles Conder exhibited his first fan design in 1893 and created a significant number of similar works over the following 15 years.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Charles Edward Conder (24 October 1868 – 9 February 1909) was an English-born painter, lithographer and designer.
See the richer artist page
