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Painting and Sculpture 45
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
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.