The Félix Cañada Art Gallery, which opened on 17 December 2009, is intended to address the much more far-reaching project – unprecedented in the Spanish university system – of collaborating
in the humanistic education of the students at the Mining School of Madrid. The Gallery is supported by the Gómez-Pardo Foundation which was set up in 1873 by José Gómez-Pardo, who provided the initial capital, a library, a collection of minerals and various scientific objects. This is a solid and vibrant institution with a significant capital base which is dedicated, amongst other objectives, to
fostering technical progress, promoting research, and supporting the qualification and professional development of the engineers, students and graduates of the School. It is thus inextricably linked to the Mining School of Madrid, whose Director, Benjamín Calvo Pérez, the chairman of the Foundation, and General Manager, Alfonso Maldonado Zamora, are the driving force behind this cultural venture.

Félix Cañada Guerrero (Segovia, 1925) graduated as a Mining Engineer from the Mining School of Madrid (1956) and during his lifetime has been a researcher, professor, geologist, instigator of geochemical surveys, writer and art enthusiast. During his very full and busy life he has managed to amass a huge collection of painting and sculpture that ranges from the 14th century through to the present day. His generosity and altruism have led him to donate paintings to the Alcázar de Segovia and the Town Council of Aranda de Duero, where he spent part of his childhood, and where he has opened a museum, the Casa de las Bolas, featuring paintings donated by him. He has donated the rest of his collection to the Gómez-Pardo Foundation, to be exhibited in full in the near future, which encompasses a broad spectrum of pictorial schools, without forgetting other artistic manifestations such as sculpture, ivory work, porcelain, furniture and musical instruments.

The Félix Cañada Art Gallery is currently exhibiting almost 50 paintings and six sculptures from the 16th to the 20th centuries, all of great quality and featuring well-known names such as Sir Thomas Lawrence (Portrait of Lord Devonshire), Juan de Arellano (Vase of Flowers), Frans Francken (The Adoration of the Shepherds), Gutiérrez de la Vega (Grapes and Goldfinch) and other works very similar to those of the great established artists, classified within the school and period to which they belong and covering all kinds of themes (religious, costumbrism, portraits, landscapes and still-lifes). The polychrome wooden carvings pertain to the circles of great sculptors such as Pedro de Mena, with his delicate “St. Francis”, and a magnificent “St. Paul” that is very close to Alonso de Berruguete. The complete donation amounts to more than two hundreds pieces. All of them have been subjected to in-depth historical, technical and scientific research in order to establish the artists and clean or restore them, where necessary, to even further enhance their quality.

The paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in three rooms that are generally used for other purposes. This year, work starts on upgrading the building and when this has finished there will be
more than 300 square metres of dedicated space or exhibiting the full collection, as well as rooms for temporary exhibitions. This new facility will allow us to house an extraordinary collection of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, Meissen porcelain and other sculptures in various materials (wood, terracotta, bronze, etc.) by both Spanish and foreign artists dating from the 16th to the 20th century. The Gallery also boasts some important French Impressionist works and some very notable examples of Spanish landscape artists from the late 19th and beginning of the 20th century, such as Joaquín Mir and Modesto Urgell. Names such as Antonio Gisbert and María Blanchard are other featured artists. The love that Félix Cañada feels for music and his desire to transmit this to future generations was behind his donation of an exceptional Steinway & Sons grand piano which will allow classical music concerts to be held at the Foundation.

All in all, this donation represents an invaluable and indivisible collection of works of art that will always be associated with the cultural and social activities of the Gómez-Pardo Foundation and the Mining School, with the aim of fostering the cultural and humanistic education of the students at the Mining School of Madrid.

As well as the donation from Félix Cañada, the Gallery has two other paintings – a portrait by Alfonso Maldonado and a large-format representation of the Gómez-Pardo family, featuring the mother, Doña María Ensenyat, and he two sons, Lorenzo and José; both of these works were donated by their creator, Carlos Pérez-Herce.