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Scenes of the slums, marginal people, matters related to death, religious rites or popular celebrations comprised the favourite thematic repertoire of Solana, who continued-albeit with greater formal modernity-the aesthetic of Black Spain, whose top representatives included Darío de Regoyos, Isidre Nonell and Ignacio Zuloaga. The latter, whom Solana emulated in his early years with numerous paintings of bullfighting and even religious themes, was one of the few artists of his day-the other was Ricardo Baroja-for whom he publicly professed admiration, and Solana dedicated one of his more famous literary works to Zuloaga (in addition to being a painter, Solana was also a famous writer of books on Costumbrist themes): Madrid callejero (Street life of Madrid) (1920). However, this painter, whose artistic language has occupied an "eccentric position" within 20th-century Spanish art, also connects with the Expressionist, anti-classical tradition of Spanish Baroque painting, and especially with Goya in his Black Paintings, from whom Solana got his characteristic colour palette of blacks, ochres and browns.

Neither Solana's style nor his artistic "imagery" underwent major shifts throughout his career, which started in the early 20th century within the currents of realism. Even though he in no way isolated himself from his contemporaries-he participated in the gatherings at Café Pombo, regularly attended national exhibitions and participated in countless collective shows both inside and outside Spain-we could say that Solana voluntarily worked far from the interests of both official art and the more innovative approaches of the art of his day. Despite this, in the 1920s and 1930s, his work and figure were regulars in magazines and publications associated with the "new art", to such an extent that some of his works-his scenes of masks and Carnival, for example, which some critics regard as grotesque and eccentric-enabled him to interact with European Expressionist painting and even with some of the Surrealistic avenues of inquiry.

On the Game earned Solana some of his earliest public recognition when it was acquired for the museum in the First International Painting and Sculpture Exhibition held in Bilbao in 1919. Known also as The Prostitutes and The Girls' Doorway, it was Solana's first painting that joined a Spanish public collection. The work depicts four women of different ages awaiting clients, accompanied by the madame. Solana most likely began to paint it in Santander, where he lived between 1909 and 1917. The artist painted some works on prostitution, almost all of them set in miserable interiors in which the "ladies of the night" tended to be chorus girls or cabaret singers. In this work from his early days, the scene is set on an alley-perhaps near the doorway of a brothel to which one of the paintings' titles refers-near a square where a group of men and women are gathered in a circle in the background of the composition. Among the figures in the foreground, which make a compact set, the madame stands out for her height. Two of the women are looking in the same direction as the madame, perhaps suggesting a moral reflection on the passage of time. The figure located on the right, who is looking at the viewer with a challenging expression, seems like a man despite his feminine clothing, so it has been assumed that it is a transvestite. For the madame, who reappears in other subsequent works, as in The Slum House (1934, Banco Santander Collection), Solana apparently portrayed the owner of a famous brothel in Santander. Just as in other of his works, which tend toward immobility, with the figures depicted as if they were still lifes, in On the Game the figures have a static appearance and seem isolated from each other. The one located on the left appears individually again in another of Solana's works, Woman of the Slums (c. 1915). In the early 1940s, while he was making many etchings and lithographs, the artist made a print with the same theme as the painting, albeit eliminating the figure of the madame. It has repeatedly been claimed that Solana submitted three works to the International Exposition in 1919. However, the catalogue of this show includes five of his paintings: The Flophouse, 1906, The Pickpockets, c. 1912, On the Game, Procession of the Scapularies, c. 1905-1907 and Killing the Hunger. Only the first three were studied by the jury charged with deciding on the acquisitions of works meant for the museum. (Miriam Alzuri)

Selected bibliography

• Exposición organizada con motivo de la concesión, por la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, de la Medalla de Honor al Ayuntamiento de la Villa [Folleto]. Bilbao, Ayuntamiento, 1952. n° cat. 54.
• Sánchez-Camargo, Manuel. Solana : vida y pintura. Madrid, Taurus, 1962. s.p., il.
• Larco, Jorge. La Pintura Española Moderna y Contemporánea. Madrid, Madrid, 1964. vol. II, pp. 57, 185.
• Castillo, Alberto del. "El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo en el de Bellas Artes de Bilbao", Goya : revista de arte, n° 101. 1971. pp. 328, 330.
• Rodríguez Alcalde, Leopoldo. J. Solana. Madrid, Giner, 1974. pp. 123, 126, il.
• Cat. Tendenzen der Zwanziger Jahre. Berlín, Dietrich Reimer, 1977. pp. 4/254, 4/255. N° cat. 4/179
• Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 66. (Con el título Mujeres de la vida).
• The Art and the era of the Spanish Generation of '98 = Tiempo y arte del 98 español [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Banco de Bilbao, 1980. p. 72,. N° cat. 33
• "Solana : el arrabal santanderino", Antiqvaria, n° 2. 1983. pp. 64-68, il.
• Manterola, Ismael [coord.]; Onaindia, Mikel [coord.]. "Bilbao 1919 : la Exposición Internacional de Pintura y Escultura = Bilbao 1919 : Nazioarteko Pintura eta Eskultura Erakusketa [Recurso electrónico]", Boletin 11 = Bulletina 11. 2019. pp. 63, 67, 105, il.
• 50 ans d'art espagnol, 1880-1936 [Cat. exp.]. Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, 1984. p. 186, n° cat. 98.
• Alonso Fernández, Luis. J. Solana : exposición-homenaje : estudio y catalogación de su obra [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Centro Cultural Conde Duque, 1985. pp. 70-71 y p. 157. N° cat. p-73
• Sorolla, Solana : Europalia 85 España [Cat. exp.]. Lieja, Salle Saint Georges, 1985. p. 153. N° cat. 5
• Cinq Siècles d'Art Espagnol : 2, Le siècle de Picasso [Cat. exp.]. Madrid ; París, Ministerio de Cultura ; Musées, 1987. p. 263, n° cat. 191.
• Spanish masterpieces of the 20th century [Cat. exp.]. Tokio, The Seibu Museum of Art, 1989. pp. 93, 159. N° cat. 27
• Tesoros del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : pintura, 1400-1939 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, El Viso, 1989. pp. 144-1456, n° cat. 56.
• José Gutiérrez Solana : grabador y litógrafo [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1990. p. 101. N° cat. P.73
• La pintura del siglo XX en Cantabria : tradición y vanguardia [Cat. exp.]. Santander, Museo de Bellas Artes, 1991. pp. 66-67
• Barea, Arturo. La Forja: Primera parte de la forja de un rebelde. Barcelona, Plaza & Janés, 1993. (reproducido en cubierta)
• La Sociedad de Artistas Ibéricos y el arte español de 1925 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid ; Barcelona, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía ; Àmbit, 1995. p. 160.
• La huella del 98 en la pintura española contemporánea [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 1998. pp. 170-171, 290. N° cat. 23
• De Picasso a Bacon : arte contemporáneo en las colecciones del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Segovia, Museo de Arte Contemporánea Esteban Vicente, 1999. pp. 52-53.
• Julio Romero de Torres [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2002. p. 91
• El retrato español : del Greco a Picasso [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2004. pp. 314, 375-376.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 150-151.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 150-151.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 150-151.
• Pintura española de El Greco a Picasso : el tiempo, la verdad y la historia [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, TF Editores, 2006. pp. 206-207.
• Entre dos siglos : España 1900 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, 2008. p. 90.
• Gondra Rezola, Juan ; Villanueva Edo, Antonio. Los hospitales civiles de Bilbao : homenaje al Hospital de Basurto en su centenario, 1908-2008. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Eusko Jaurlaritza = Gobierno Vasco, 2008. p. 198.
• Ramón Gaya : homenaje a la pintura [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, 2010. p. 23.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. pp. 150-151, n° cat. 106a.
• Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. pp. 150-151, n° cat. 106a.
• 100 años en femenino : una historia de las mujeres en España [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Acción Cultural Española, 2012. p. 241, sin n° cat.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 150.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. pp. 150-151.
• Maestros : Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao . Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 96-97, il.
• Maisuak : Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 96-97, il.
• Masters : Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 96-97, il.
• Maîtres : Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bilbao. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 96-97, il.
• Zuloaga en el París de la Belle Epoque, 1889-1914 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, 2017. pp. 54-55, il.
• 110 Años 110 Obras [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 204-207, sin n° cat.
• 110 Ans 110 Oeuvres [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 204-207, sin n° cat.
• 110 Urte 110 Artelan [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 204-207, sin n° cat.
• 110 Years 110 Works [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 204-207, sin n° cat.
• Bilboko Museoaren alfabetoa = El alfabeto del Museo de Bilbao = The alphabet of the Bilbao Museum = L'alphabet du Musée de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 66, 73, n° cat. 33.
• Pinturas traducidas : el grabado de reproducción en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 35, 38, il.