Witches going to their Sabbath by Luis Ricardo Falero

Witches going to their Sabbath (1878)

This painting by the Andalusian artist Luis Ricardo Falero (1851-1896) is, without doubt, the greatest painting of witches!  Not only does it feature some of the most voluptuously gorgeous witches ever (the witch in the foreground could raise the dead) but it has bats, a skeletal pelican, flying monsters, ghouls and a goat.

Witches going to their Sabbath, study

Falero studied in Paris (having walked there from Spain) giving up a position in the Spanish Navy.  He eventually settled in London and died there at the young age of forty-five.  

Study of a witch

Falero's painting almost always contained naked or near naked women and often in a fantastical way ,as with his witches.  Ignoring, on the whole, the wizened crones of earlier times, Falero's witches were all curvaceous, gorgeous women.

Festival of the Witches (1880)

Two points on broom etiquette can be noted in the two paintings above.  Firstly, the witches' brooms are shown as flying brush first, which was the normal way before the more recent rocket-like brush at the rear depiction.  Secondly, his witches avoid any tasteless, sitting astride the broomstick, poses.   In fact this witch is decorously riding side-saddle!

Desnudo de mujer by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida

Desnudo de mujer (1902)

This picture is by Spanish impressionist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) who was best known for his bright sunlit landscapes and beach scenes.  He studied in Madrid and Rome and had a great success at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900.  A very productive painter, he was financially very successful.  His widow left many paintings to the Spanish state and they are exhibited in his old home in Madrid.  This is a full on boudoir effort, very different from some of his social themed pieces and atypical in many ways but, none the less, magnificent in its handling of pink satin.