Cecilio Pla and Fellow Artists in San Esteban de Pravia (Asturias)
1889. Gelatin / Collodion.Not on display
A group of eight men pose on a terrace. According to the inscription written on the photograph itself, the terrace belongs to the villa of Constantino Fernández Vallín, Marquess of Muros, in San Esteban de Pravia. All of them are painters linked to the Colonia Artística de Muros del Nalón. Among those portrayed are Casto Plasencia, Félix Granda Builla, Tomás García Sampedro, Heredia (?), Agustín Lhardy, Cecilio Pla himself, Antonio Cordero and Adolfo Marín.
The Colonia Artística de Muros del Nalón was founded by Casto Plasencia and Tomás García Sampedro, and it soon became one of the most prominent artist communities in Spain. It was attended by a considerable number of young painters known to Plasencia, who were associated with the classes at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and some of whose stays in Rome overlapped. The meetings in Asturias began in the summer of 1884 and continued until 1892, although Plasencia’s death in 1890 was a severe setback and had a direct impact on the life of the group. Cecilio Pla was one of its members and, for several summers, visited Asturias to take part in this joint work.
