PRADO’S NEW EXPANSION DEBUTS OCTOBER 31

MADRID To celebrate the most extensive expansion in its 200-year history, Madrid’s Prado Museum (Museo Nacional del Prado) will present “A Collection Rediscovered: The 19^th Century in the Prado” on October 31. More than 100 works – many not seen for many years – will offer a survey of the leading masters of 19^th century Spanish art, from Francisco Goya to Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. Running through April 24, 2008, the group of 95 paintings and 12 sculptures will be displayed in the Prado’s impressive new temporary exhibition galleries. Additionally, a selection of drawings by Goya will be on display led off by the artist’s Winged Bull – its first showing since it was acquired by the Museum last year. 

      Organized in nine chronological sections, the exhibition traces the different trends and styles that arose during the 19^th century in Spain. The show opens with a room of portraits by Goya, including one of his most important, The Marchioness of Santa Cruz along with works by Vincente López (Portrait of the Painter Francisco de Goya) and José de Madrazo (The Death of Viriato.) “Romanticism,” the next section brings together works by Leonardo Alenza, Gerardo Pérez Villamil, Eugenio Lucas and Antonio María Esquivel. Next come eight paintings by Federico de Madrazo, a proponent of the Academic style and an entire room devoted to the Realist painter Eudardo Rosales including his celebrated Isabel La Católica Dictating her Will. The second area of the exhibition has a spectacular group of “History Paintings” that includes some of the most impressive works in the Prado’s collection – monumental paintings like Francisco Pradilla’s Juana la Loca, Antonio Munoz Degrain’s The Lovers of Teruel and Antonio Gisbert’s The Execution of Torrijos. In the “Realist Landscape” section, the show adopts a more intimate mood with the work of Carlos de Haes and moves on to the exquisite realism and virtuoso technique of Mariano Fortuny with works such as Elderly Nude in the Sun and The Painter’s Children in the Japanese Room.  The penultimate section, “From Realism to the End of the Century,” features works by Francisco Domingo Marqués and Ignacio Pinazo. The exhibition concludes with the modern artistic styles that developed around the turn of the century with such celebrated works as And They Still Say Fish is Expensive! and Young Boys on the Beach by Sorolla. 

       In the $208.8 million (152 million euro) restoration of the Museo del Prado, the original 1785 Villanueva building has been joined to a new structure effectively doubling the museums’ space.  One of Spain’s most distinguished architects, Pritzker prize-winning Rafael Moneo, devised this ingenious and sensitive addition incorporating the 17^th century cloister of the Monastery of San Jerónimo el Real which was painstakingly dismantled and then rebuilt. The inclusion of the Cloister into the new building creates an exceptional light-filled gallery. The new 167,023-square-foot space includes a large underground area that connects the two buildings concealed beneath a roof garden. Here, Moneo brings to mind the traditional landscaped gardens of the 18^th century.  Bringing the museum up to 21^st century standards is a large reception area and visitor area, a new gift shop/bookshop, a new cafeteria-restaurant and a lecture hall with seating for 438 people. Specially-designed areas for restoration and larger and better equipped storage areas with a sizeable loading bay have been added.

       The Prado Museum is located on Paseo del Prado, call: 011-34-91-330-28-00, fax: 011-34-91-330-28-56 or e-mail: museo.nacional@prado.mcu.es.  Open daily, except Mondays, from 9 AM to 8 PM.  Admission is about $8.50, or 6 euros, except Sundays (9 AM to 7 PM) when it is free.  Visitors under 18, over 65 and students from EU countries are admitted free of charge. Non-EU students pay about $4.25, or 3 euros.  Go to http://museoprado.mcu.es/home.html

      For information about Spain, contact the Tourist Office of Spain in New York (212-265-8822); Miami (305-358-1992); Chicago (312-642-1992) or Los Angeles (323-658-7188) or go to www.spain.info