Springtime in Spain, near Gordella

John William Inchbold

Date: 1866 

Materials: Oil on canvas

This is one of the few identified works resulting from Inchbold's travels in Spain in the winter of 1865-66.

He was delighted when the collector James Leathart offered forty guineas for the painting early in 1869, but unfortunately he changed his mind and returned it to the artist. In a letter, Inchbold outlined the effects he was trying to capture, conceding that these might  "touch a different chord in those who knew not this land of strange and intense extremes". Unable to be dissuaded, Leathart exchanged the picture for a more conventional view of Venice, offering acompensatory payment of an additional ten guineas.