Evaristo Valley Museum

Latitude: 43.5340042 Length: -5.6208372
Open location in Google Maps

According to Lafuente Ferrari: «There are painters who, although very gifted in their art, need many trials before finding their own voice. I say his voice and not his world, because that was imposed on Valle from his early years; the sweet and humid nature of Asturias, the humble life, attached to the earth, the melancholy of the acid greens under the leaden clouds, the village peace in contrast to the artificial existence of the city ... »

Son of his time as Zuloaga, Pérez de Ayala and others, Valle was interested in his characters more human characteristic than realistic individualizing. It captured the temperament and the sociological situation of its models and he presented them in the middle in which both things are best reflected: the sailor chatting next to the nets, the gossips murmuring, the lady surrounded by servants or chaplains ... that is, Evaristo Valle paints more than man to people. Therefore, he did not need the physical presence of his models, but his memory. However, the habit of contemporary painters in Valle was very different: model and study, workshop and model. When in one of his moments of fruitful creation, in the 20 years, someone asked him in Gijón if he painted by heart, Valle replied: «I don't remember painting a picture without seeing it before in real life and looking at it and looking at it and feeling it and feeling its line, its color and its beauty, it has touched me so much at times, that tears came to my eyes to see it. »

The Evaristo Valle Museum is the result of the affection and generosity of the niece of the painter María Rodríguez del Valle, who since his death in 1951 treasured with admirable zeal works, personal objects and documents of the artist that today make up the museum's collections.

They are exhibited permanently More than a hundred works by Valle, organized chronologically, thematically or technically, allow us to approach their deep, varied and rich pictorial and pictorial legacy. You can also see next to the reconstruction of his studio, the suggestive collection of shells inherited by his father's painter.

His first paintings made in Paris from 1903 as The orgy, others from the middle of the first decade of the century as The sick granddaughter y The philosopher; or his family portraits, works as serious and profound as the portraits of the grandmother and the mother of the painter, the latter only work that always remained hanging in his studio and was repeatedly modified.

After his definitive return to Gijón, key works within his production, with paintings as important as those of the series The boxes, Carnival dance, The foal in the corral y Elegant of Gijón; from these, the landscape and people of Asturias would always be present, aware that in this corner of the world, because of their "simple complexity" and their absolutely unique experiential characteristics, they had enough capacity to supply their creative imagination arsenal enough to develop a work with universal reach.

The two museum buildings are located within splendid gardens, mix of French and English gardening, that with more than 16.000 square meters they conserve, after a century, a good part of the layout, ornamental elements and many of their 120 different species of trees and shrubs, mostly native.

The museum, forms well an incomparable frame full of melancholy is in perfect harmony with the work and personality of Evaristo Valle, as well as that of its founder. In the gardens, more than twenty sculptures are exhibited, preferably by contemporary artists, there being a space for contemplation and study of birds and another dedicated to Bonsai.

Museo Evaristo Valle opening hours

WINTER SCHEDULE (OCTOBER-MARCH)
Tuesday to Friday, from 10.00:13.00 a.m. to XNUMX:XNUMX p.m.
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 12.00:14.00 to XNUMX:XNUMX.

APRIL, MAY, JUNE AND SEPTEMBER
Tuesday to Friday, from 10.00 a.m. to 13.00 p.m. Saturdays, from 17.00:20.00 p.m. to XNUMX:XNUMX p.m.
Sundays and holidays from 12.00 to 14.00 h.

JULY AND AUGUST
Tuesday to Saturday, from 17.00:20.00 a.m. to XNUMX:XNUMX p.m.
Sundays and holidays from 12.00 to 14.00 h.

CLOSING DAYS OF THE MUSEUM
On Mondays and on January 1st and 6th and December 24th, 25th and 31st.

· Consult the schedule of guided tours and educational activities.

Evaristo Valle Museum Rates

GENERAL €5
REDUCED €3 Students, retirees, over 65s and groups.
FREE Friends of the museum, Tuesdays and children under 12 accompanied by an adult.
· EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS €3
GUIDED TOURS €30 Evaristo Valle, historical gardens and sculpture park, temporary exhibitions ... Subject to guide availability.
· PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC REPORTS €50 At a time to be agreed.

Source: Evaristo Valle Museum, Gijón.