* * * * *
Plaque honoring the birthplace of cubist artist Juan Gris at the historic Hotel Europa located at the corner of Calle Carmen and Calle de Tetuán, just a block off the la Puerta del Sol, the Times Square of Madrid. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2021.
"It was a spring morning.
At number 4 Carrer del Carmen, in the
same building where our hotel (Hotel Europa) is located today, a woman was in
labor pains. Her name, Isabel Pérez Brasategui. He already had a dozen grown
children, but a special fate awaited the number thirteen.
Click on title to see entire post.
We imagine that the first sounds that
reached that baby's ears would be the clattering of carts, the neighing of
horses, and the voices of passersby. In those years, it is estimated that
between eight in the morning and nine at night, 3,950 carriages and 1,414
caballerias circulated through the square. Madrid was already then, in 1887 the
great breakwater that Machado would write about.
They named him José Victoriano Carmelo
Carlos. The father, a businessman from Valladolid named Gregorio González
Rodríguez, wanted him to study as an engineer. However, after two years at the
Madrid School of Arts and Crafts, the young man knew that his life would be
different. I would paint, draw and illustrate. And he would call himself Juan
Gris.
He traveled to Paris, where he would
meet Picasso, Léger and Braque. He earned the nickname of "scientific
cubist" because he applied to his works the knowledge of mathematics and
geometry acquired in the classrooms of Madrid. This also earned him that some
even called him "the purest cubist painter."
However, long before all that, on a
March morning like today, 127 years ago, Juan Gris was a newborn child. We have
the enormous privilege of living and working in that place where he was born.
The cradle of Juan Gris."
Written by Laura Blanco for Hotel Europa
Photograph courtesy of Hotel Europa, Madrid.
Hotel Europa, Madrid. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2021.
* * * * *
Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.
If
you enjoy these blog posts, please consider a contribution to help me
continue the work of gathering all this great information and these
photographs for Gerry Dawes's Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine,
Culture and Travel. Contributions of $5 and up will be greatly
appreciated. Contributions of $100 or more will be acknowledged on the
blog. Please click on this secure link to Paypal to make your contribution.
Text and photographs
copyright by Gerry Dawes©2021. Using photographs without crediting Gerry Dawes©2021 on
Facebook. Publication without my written permission is not authorized.
* * * * *
Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?
Poem
by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse
Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt
Huntington,in the courtyard of the Hispanic
Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York
City.
Comments are welcome and encouraged.
Text and photographs
copyright by Gerry Dawes©2021. Using photographs without crediting Gerry Dawes©2021 on
Facebook. Publication without my written permission is not authorized.
* * * * *
Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?
Poem
by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse
Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt
Huntington,
in the courtyard of the Hispanic
Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York
City.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50
Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in
2019 by Feedspot. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019)
"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from
thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our
index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these
websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and
empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality
information."
36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel
About Gerry Dawes
My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine
enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless
crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce
Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's
culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel
Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019
Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)
Dawes
was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía
(National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on
Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural
tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's
Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava
Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004,
was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles
& Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the
2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature
in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about
Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.
".
. .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià
in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow
narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish
correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food
journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a
self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again
brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane
Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher,
Food Arts, October 2009.
Pilot for a reality television series
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
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