Housefronts
Héctor Basaldúa
,Oil on canvas, 81 × 115cm.
In this oil painting, the artist describes a peaceful urban scene, perhaps a provincial settlement or a neighborhood removed from the center of the city of Buenos Aires. The focal point of the scene is a house painted pink, with an Italianate façade featuring plinths and pilasters. A central portico with open doors reveals a view of the central patio; the doorway is crowned by a fan window divided into five radial sections. To either side, there are rectangular windows; a straight horizontal molding tops the windows and the doorway along with a balustrade in three segments. To the left the low window of a short brick house appears, with a neighbor woman seated on the sidewalk; to the right, another building with a curved cornice over an open door can be seen. The figures in the painting are no less interesting. An informal soiree has been organized on the sidewalk: to the right, a man and woman appear; to the left, another woman reclines in a rocking chair, and in the street and ignoring the horse that approaches, another woman is seated. The chairs and the rocker have curved backrests. A strolling couple appears on the right-hand side of the painting, and a horse seems to be harnessed to a horsepulled vehicle, and there is a woman leaning on a table. The women’s long dresses give the impression that the sceneportrayed is much earlier than the date of the painting, perhaps going back to the late 19th century.