No title. (1911 - 1924)

Tempera on signed cardboard, on a slightly arched support at its edges. Measurements: 67 x 77 cm / 26.37 x 30.31 in. Unframed work.

Precious record of a mountain town, crowned by its magnificent church and bordered by cultivated land, probably from Spain. In the foreground a peasant is working with a plow drawn by a team of oxen. It was made by Soto Acebal in one of his two trips to the Old World. In the first, between 1911 and 1915, of training, after a first stay in Paris, after the outbreak of the First World War he went to Castile. The second was between 1923 and 1924, a period in which he remained for work in the Basque Country.

Jorge Soto Acébal (Buenos Aires, 1891 - 1974) began his artistic career at an early age as a draftsman in the workshop of the architect Alejandro Christophersen. In mid-1911 he traveled to Europe to continue his studies and the following year he entered a large architecture and decoration workshop in Paris. During his free time, he traveled to Spain, France and Germany and painted what he observed with watercolors, with a special focus on his landscapes and architecture. In 1913 in San Sebastián, Spain, he participated in his first collective exhibition, receiving the Cruz de Alfonso XII award for having been a member of the Organizing Committee of the same. He thus began his vast artistic, academic and educational career.

In 1921 he made his first personal exhibition of him at the Müller Gallery. In 1928 he exhibited works in an exhibition held in Baltimore, United States, and later in New York, San Francisco and at the Panamericana of the Riverside Museum in New York. He participated in different salons and in 1936, he obtained the First National Prize at the XXVI Salon with his work "Susana".

He was a member of the National Commission of Fine Arts and was President of the Society of Watercolorists and Engravers. In 1930 he drew up the study plan for the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes and the following year he was appointed Director General of Fine Arts. It was he who designed and had the National Museum of Fine Arts built on the old building of the Casa de Bombas under the direction of the architect Alejandro Bustillo. In 1936 he was appointed Member of the National Academy of Fine Arts; between 1961 and 1964 he was its president.

Works of his authorship are found in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires and in provincial museums in Argentina, as well as in the Jockey Club in Buenos Aires and in private collections.

S.O-XIV