Butterflies lost in the mountains

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The Reina Sofia Art Center (Madrid, Spain).

Briefly about the painting:

While in Paris for a long time, the artist, no doubt, felt nostalgic about his home in the Canary Islands. In this regard, memories from childhood and youth often emerged in his works of the Paris period. The collection of butterflies, which Dominguez depicted here, belonged to his father and evoked rich associations in the artist’s imagination. The author’s fantasy placed them on the top of a high mountain and surrounded them with young girls, soaring effortlessly in the air, as if they were birds. These girls are dressed in national guanchi clothes – attires of the indigenous population of the island of Tenerife, which also indicates that Dominguez often remembered his homeland.