| Luis Quintanilla in the Model Jail (Carcel Modelo) of Madrid in 1934. The suede jacket he's wearing was given to him by Hemingway. |
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The Drawings of Jail |
"The crushing fatality of our times is politics. More so than the well-known idea of Aristotle's that man is a political animal, I believe he is an unfortunate failure who is subjugated by political activities from which no one can extricate himself: whether he is an exalted philosopher in his ivory tower, a shepherd contemplating the clouds, or an artist attempting to remain on the margins, he can not avoid the consequences, especially in this insane twentieth century of ours." Luis Quintanilla, in his memoirs, Pasatiempo: la vida de un pintor. |
On the night of October 5, 1934, Quintanilla was arrested in his studio for being a member of the Revolutionary Committee which intended to oust the Spanish government. He was taken to Madrid's Model Jail (Carcel Modelo) where along with a sizeable group of politicians, intellectuals, and workers he was locked up to await trial. Though more sympathetically than actively involved, he had indeed hosted a large group of revolutionaries who were awaiting the moment when they would go out onto the streets to oust the central government: though when the police arrived he vigorously protested that they had gathered in his studio merely to look at art. As has happened when other prominent artists have found themselves in jail, the world's intellectual community immediately rallied to his aid. Andre Malraux organized the protests and circulated the petitions in France. Lady Margo Asquith, the wife of the former Prime Minister, did the same in England and so did Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos in the United States. The petitions and protests didn't get Quintanilla out of jail but did result in allowing him to continue to work. Because the light in jail wasn't good enough to paint in he drew his fellow prisoners instead. And what a collection of extraordinary personalities emerges out of these ancient drawings: poets, working men, students, intellectuals, and national leaders. |
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Benavides
Ordonez, the Student
A complete friend, weighing 120 kilos
A young Communist student
Wenceslao Carrillo
Francisco Largo Caballero
(Premier 1936 - 1937)
Manuelin
Christmas Eve Celebration
"The Great Theater of the World"
Rufino Cortes
At
times they serve as company
and for entertainment
Antonio, the Miner
Ogier Preteceille
Sleeping
Inevitable
A Recurrent Need
(This is not the actual title. I changed it because
the original title kept appearing at the very top of my
keyword hit list. And I grew tired of seeing it.)
Melancholy
Catching Rats
Interior of Jail Cell
Trigo, the Foundry Man
Mayoral, the Bull Herder
Julian Zugazagoitia
(Minister of the Interior during the war)
Francisco Largo Calvo
Christmas Eve
Luis Companys
(President of the Catalan Generalidad)
Gassol
Rafael Henche
Decoration
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The 27 illustrations which appear on this website were reproduced from La Carcel Por Dentro, the book of jail drawings which was published shortly after Quintanilla was released from jail in 1935. 50 of the drawings appeared in the book and the originals were drawn with a pencil on 26 x 37 cm. sheets of paper. While Quintanilla was in jail Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos arranged to have a show of his Madrid etchings at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. Dos Passos and Hemingway wrote the catalog. Click here to see what they wrote for the catalog. |
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