VÍCTOR MANUEL (1897-1969) Calle de noche signed 'Victor Manuel' (lower right) tempera and watercolor and brush and ink on paper 24 x 17 15/16 in (61 x 45.5 cm) Footnotes: The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Fundación Arte Cubano. Provenance Juan José Reina Collection, Havana. Acquired from the above by the present owner. Literature F.A. Orta, Variaciones del árbol, Madrid, 2021, p. 43 (illustrated). Calle de noche belongs to Víctor Manuel's modern urban imagery, in which scenes of everyday life are transformed into compositions of pronounced poetic and atmospheric presence. The nocturnal setting is distilled into a carefully balanced structure and a restrained chromatic range, evoking silence, introspection, and a heightened emotional stillness. The work reflects the artist's sustained interest in formal simplification and in capturing the psychological essence of place rather than its descriptive detail. Through economy of means and compositional clarity, Víctor Manuel privileges expression and structure, signaling a decisive shift away from academic naturalism. In this sense, Night Street exemplifies the emergence of a self-conscious and personal pictorial modernity in Cuban art. Widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Cuban painting, Víctor Manuel played a seminal role in forging a renewed visual language that merged European modernist influences with a distinctly local sensibility. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing