While Raurich always showed an interest in ponds and pools of water, this painting was made after his time in Italy between 1895 and 1898, where he had painted the Pontine Marshes to the southeast of Rome which other scholarship holders also used as a theme for their works. This particular picture is a good example of the artist’s liking for the symbolism of ponds in neglected gardens and luxuriant vegetation, treated with thick impasto worked with great finesse.

A label on the back of the painting bears the inscription “Espagne/Saint-Pétersbourg/Raurich 1901 no. 339”, which would lead us to surmise that the work may be El estanque de Remolà which was displayed in an exhibition held in St Petersburg in 1900. The date on the back could be an error in transcription.

The work depicts an autumnal landscape in a silent and intimate space as the trees are losing their leaves and the milky, almost wintery light shrouds nature in a melancholic mood. The central motif of the canvas, the stagnant pond, is covered with fallen leaves, while the autumnal undergrowth takes over the surrounding area.

There is another work in the BBVA Collection by the same artist and with a similar theme, titled Paisaje puente, which also reproduces a landscape with a pond in a palette of cold colours.