Álvaro Delgado was involved in the earliest attempts to do away with academicism —he was a disciple of Daniel Vázquez Díaz (1882-1969) and a member of the

 Second

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

 

(1939-1942) the sequel to the first

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

, founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez and disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War. After the war, the art group was reborn as the so-called Second

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

. This second version was promoted, once again, by Palencia, but this time in the company of Francisco San José and a group of students from the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. The group contained most of the artists that would later make up the

 School of Madrid 

or Young School of Madrid, is a term coined by the art dealer and bookseller Karl Buchholz and the art critic Manuel Sánchez Camargo to name the group of Spanish painters—many of them from the Second

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

—who took part in the group exhibition held in 1945 at Galería Buchholz in Madrid. This group has sometimes been considered a mere commercial project driven by art critics and gallery owners with a view to creating a market for landscape painting.

. The Prado museum was the meeting point for these artists and El Greco their major influence. Landscape continued being the motif par excellence, although executed in more realistic tones, far from the experimentation of the initial period—ultimately, a more restrained landscape offering a refuge from the horrors of war.

and later of the

 School of Madrid 

or Young School of Madrid, is a term coined by the art dealer and bookseller Karl Buchholz and the art critic Manuel Sánchez Camargo to name the group of Spanish painters—many of them from the Second

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

—who took part in the group exhibition held in 1945 at Galería Buchholz in Madrid. This group has sometimes been considered a mere commercial project driven by art critics and gallery owners with a view to creating a market for landscape painting.

— and to create a new kind of art, embracing new forms of expression without thereby breaking with tradition.
 
In the sixties his style evolved towards an increasingly heightened Expressionism in which abstract forms asserted themselves at the expense of figurative ones. He developed a gestural form of painting, composing the picture with rapid, spontaneous strokes; his hands acted as a vehicle for transmitting thought into action.
 
Nevertheless, although Expressionism is a constant factor in his paintings and drawings, to define his work as such would be too limiting, since Álvaro Delgado combined different styles and idioms.
 
This study of a goat comes from Crónica de la Olmeda, an anthology of drawings illustrating the main geographical, animal and human features of Olmeda de las Fuentes, a town near Madrid, made by the artist from 1965 to 1975 during the time he lived there. In these sketched compositions he managed to capture the essence of its landscapes and inhabitants, combining , to which he was so strongly attracted, with an enthusiasm deriving from his emotional experiences in those years.
 
His lines are self-assured and possess a heightened dramatic quality that increases the intensity on the black paper support Delgado was so fond of. It has been said of this artist that his painting was uniquely able to fuse intuition and intellect.