The Furtive Message

Oil on Panel
23 ¾ x 19 in.
After 1877
1931.391.163
On display in: McKee Room

Here Worms re-creates a Spanish street as it might have appeared in the time of Goya. The background is based on a watercolor sketch the artist made during an 1877 visit to Slamance. The picturesque setting forms a backdrop for a farce. As so often in Worm’s work, love is at the heart of the comedy, in this case an old story told long before by Goys, and more recently by Fortuny: a mismatch of a pretty young woman and her old but presumably wealthy husband. Worms shows a predictable outcome. The beautiful maja, wishing a rendezvous with her young lover, has dropped her fan, which her husband politely recovers. Worm’s is a comic-opera version of old Spain, in which every young woman is attractive, every young man dashing and handsome, and every husband a buffoon.

In the background, shades are drawn against the intense sunlight that impressed the artist during his 1860-1 visit to Spain. When in the northwestern part of the country, he was struck by the sparkling light like that depicted in Fortuny’s paintings: “No more shadows! But light, electric light.” The orange-brown background and bright accents of the costumes to the impression of luminous warmth.

Text by Patricia B. Sanders reprinted from The Haggin Collection (available for purchase at the Museum Store)
© 1991 by the San Joaquin Pioneer and Historical Society