Although born in Leon, at the age of nineteen the painter moved to Madrid to enrol at the School of Fine Arts. In the 1980s he was one of the painters working at La Nave, the

 Bateau-Lavoir 

the name of a building in Paris which was the residence and meeting place for many artists in the early 1900s. By extension, the name is often used as a place where painters and artists work and gather.

 located in calle Santa Úrsulain Madrid that provided a working space for many artists.

José de León defined himself as a “national surrealist” painter, and is considered one of the possible heirs to the movement created by Breton, to which we ought to add his passion for Spain and its symbols. He is a visionary and imaginative painter whose works seem to be suffused with a fairytale atmosphere of fantasy.

The work at hand belongs to a specific period in the trajectory of this artist (1990-93) which was clearly visible in the exhibition Sueños de cal. On a white backdrop that seems to be longing for Southern landscapes and Mediterranean light, the artist applies a palette made of bright rainbow colours.

In this work, Árbol de invierno, the blue tree with open branches on which the birds have replaced the fallen fruit dominates the composition together with the pool mirroring its reflection. Against the white background, a whole world in miniature seems to have found shelter under a totemic tree. Tiny houses, graveyards, fantastic animals and fruit are all grouped to form different scenes that look as if they were suspended against a cosmic backdrop.