Visiting the
Carmen Thyssen Museum
As part of this year’s Concurso de Elegancia Costa del Sol’s carefully-curated artistic program, attendees enjoyed a private, guided tour of the Carmen Thyssen Museum—a landmark of Málaga’s cultural scene that showcases an exceptional collection of 19th- and 20th-century Spanish art.
(Art) On a quiet side street in Málaga, the Carmen Thyssen Museum unfolds around a central courtyard, its arcades bathed in soft, natural light from a glass ceiling. The marble columns and Renaissance doorway speak of its origins as a noble home from the late 15th to early 16th century, lending the space a quiet elegance only history can provide. Since 2011, the former Palacio de Villalón has held the private collection of Carmen Thyssen—the third wife of the collector and philanthropist Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Over two floors, the stark exhibition spaces fade into the background, allowing for the eye to focus on more than 200 artworks that include old masters, Romantic landscapes, and Naturalist paintings. Highlights include The Bath (Seville) by Francisco Iturrino from 1908—an intense paradise-like depiction of nude female bodies exalting the joy and beauty of the natural, beneath the light of southern Spain.
Even more iconic is Ramon Casas i Carbó’s Julia (1915), a striking portrait of Julia Peraire, a beautiful lottery ticket vendor from Plaza de Cataluña who captivated the artist when they met and later became his wife. Dressed in a bright red and embroidered traditional matador jacket set over a waistcoat with silver threading, Julia is defiant yet sensual, arresting the viewer with her bright red lipstick.