Angel Botello (Barros) (Puerto Rico/Haiti/Spain, 1913-1986) oil on canvas landscape painting depicting a road winding through a hilly landscape dotted with colorful trees. Shadows fill the valley below, while a distant mountain range is illuminated by the overcast sky above. Signed "A Botello Barros" lower left. Conservation label en verso. The hand carved whitewashed frame, with gilt bead course running pattern, mounted to a larger wooden frame, may be original to the piece. Sight - 28 1/2" H x 32 1/2" W. Framed - 39" H x 42 1/2" W. Provenance: Private Nashville collection. Biography: Sometimes referred to as "The Caribbean Gaugin" for his use of bold colors and depictions of island life, Angel Botello Barros, later known simply as Angel Botello, was born in Galicia, Spain. He moved to Bordeaux, France with his family in the 1920s and studied for four years at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1935 he returned to Spain to study at the Academia de Bellas artes de San Fernando in Madrid. The Spanish Civil War disrupted his life and education. He joined the army as a cartographer, and eventually was reunited with his family in France in a refugee camp. They resettled in the Dominican Republic, where Botello's career flourished. Many of his paintings created at this time were presented at the Latin American Art Exposition at the Riverside Museum in 1940. His paintings gained the attention of the Peruvian ambassador, who invited Botello to show them in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1944. There Botello met his future wife, Christiane. The couple lived in Haiti for about ten years until the 1950's when they moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1953, they opened an art gallery at the Caribe Hilton Hotel. (source: AskArt, the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico).

Overall very good condition with scattered craquelure. A few scattered flecks of paint loss, largest 5/8", lower left. Painting was cleaned, lined and placed on a new ICA spring stretcher during professional restoration by Cumberland Art Conservation, Nashville, TN, March 1997. An area of small flakes at the right edge, just below center, were infilled at the same time. Full conservation report available on request. Frame with natural age cracks.