Wonderful little oil on canvas, high up in the air, of an alley leading to a church in the town of San Esteban de Gormaz in old Castile.

The eye, initially drawn by the depth of the alley towards the church, descends vertically in the axis of the bell tower towards the three women who are chatting, sitting in the shade in the foreground on their doorstep, humanising the scene.

The exaggerated perspective of the small white houses on either side of the alley and the yellow-orange-red colour chosen to paint the surface of the alley, imposes in an original way the presence of this element of the landscape with as much force as the church to which it leads, seeming to testify that the path is as valuable as its destination.

The division of the masses, the brushstrokes articulating light and shadow, sky and earth, warm and cold colours, make this “bow tie” canvas a testimony to the strength of the Spanish landscape in the artist’s work.