Girona vom Fluss aus gesehen, im Hintergrund der Turm der Kathedrale 1928

Hermann Lismann made this drawing of Girona, Spain, from the river with ink and brush, sometime in the early 20th century. Lismann shows us the backs of buildings crowded along the Onyar River, with the tower of the Girona Cathedral rising up behind them. This is not the picturesque view that tourists might expect. Rather, the artist focuses on the city's vernacular architecture. The composition emphasizes the stacked-up, organic, almost haphazard, quality of the buildings. In this way, the image embodies a modern interest in the everyday experience and the structures ordinary people inhabit. To fully understand this drawing, we need to understand the place of Catalonia within the broader history of Spain and the history of the Catholic Church, both of which are highly contested. Art historians use a range of social, political, and cultural data to interpret works such as this.