“An artist who does not make concessions, authentic, completely honest.” This is how Alain Gobin, an unconditional admirer of his unique style, defined him.

Born in Paris, in the heart of a well-to-do family, he was the son of a Catalonian engineer, and the grandson of Marco Aurelio Soto, a President of the Republic of Honduras. From a very early age, he had access to the most elite international cultural circles, and it was Picasso himself the person who encouraged him to devote himself to painting, after seeing some of his drawings.

At the age of twelve, he and his family moved to Madrid, and thus it was there that he discovered the great masters at the Prado Museum. Three years later, he returned to Paris, where he first studied with Maurice Denis and Georges Desvallieres at the Academy of Sacred Art and then with André Lhote and Gino Severini.

Viñes investigated all of the Vanguard tendencies. Between 1921 and 1925 his work was clearly marked by a cubist influence, and starting in 1927, he became attracted by Poetic Surrealism. By that time he had already exhibited with the majority of the great masters of his time, such as Picasso, Bores, Beaudin, or Roger. His friendship with the writers of the Generation of 1927 resulted in numerous artistic collaborations, among which the design of the sets and costumes for Manuel de Falla’s ballet “El Retablo de Maese Pedro” (The Tableau of Master Peter) is notable.

In Hernando Viñes’s work, form and color stand out in compositions that are always filled with a musicality that ends up imposing itself on the drawing. There is a strong spirituality in them, the fruit of the artist’s preoccupation with the atmosphere* surrounding him, from landscapes and still life to his acclaimed interiors.

His anxious personality led him to abandon painting on several occasions, although he always ended up returning to it. His definitive retirement did not take place until 1988, due to health reasons. Since then, his work has been the object of repeated studies, with retrospective shows and tributes, such as the ones at the Barbizon Gallery in Paris or the Student Residence in Madrid.

Viñes’s paintings can be found in the best of the world’s art collections, such as the Queen Sofía Museum in Madrid and the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris.