The Yellow Kimono: Retrato de Federico García Lorca by Gregorio Toledo

Abstract

In December 1931, Gregorio Toledo, a painter from La Palma, signed his painted portrait of Federico García Lorca. Though the date below the signature is December, the portrait seems to have been painted in various stages. This portrait, displayed in the piano room of García Lorca's Huerta de San Vicente house, portrays the poet in a highly original fashion. Dressed in a yellow kimono, eyes fixed on the horizon, his face, formerly so vivid and smiling, now looks sad and worried. In the background, we see a portolan chart illustrating the Canary Islands, which, curiously enough, are aligned with García Lorca's head. In 1924, Toledo was granted a scholarship by the Cabildo Insular de La Palma, which enabled him to relocate to Madrid and establish himself there. Toledo subsequently enrolled at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Driven by a deep desire to learn and immerse himself in the world of art, he often visited the Museo del Prado, a popular destination for aspiring painters during that era, to copy meticulously the masterpieces of renowned artists. Toledo was warmly embraced in the cultural circles of his contemporaries. While he resided at a hostel managed by a widow from the Canary Islands, he formed most of his friendships with fellow students from the Residencia de Estudiantes, where García Lorca happened to live at the time. This essay analyzes the relationship between the poet and the painter to interpret Toledo's portrait of García Lorca from an iconographic perspective.