Arts and Literature of Cuba

Cuban painter Armando Menocal stud- ied in Spain, then returned to Cuba to fight in the island’s war for independ- ence. He later served as director of the Academy of San Alejandro. This paint- ing by Menocal is a portrait of a woman named Elena Herrera.

work have any place in aca- demic art. The surface of a painting was supposed to look smooth and be free of obvious brushstrokes. Cuban painters of the late 1800s and early 1900s hewed

closely to the conventions of academic art. Popular subject mat- ter included scenes of daily life, often a bit idealized; portraits; still lifes; and, especially, rural landscapes. Two masters of landscape painting from this period were Miguel Arias Bardou (1841–1915) and Armando Menocal (1863–1942). The “Vanguardia” In Europe painters had begun casting aside the strictures of academic art, and exploring dramatically different styles, by the last quarter of the 19th century. Change came more slowly to Cuba. By the 1920s, though, the island had entered a period

Painting and Sculpture 45