The Hispanic Society of America is exhibiting watercolors, gouaches and illustrations of Daniel Urrabieta Vierge (1851-1904) from February 16 to April 23.

Although largely forgotten today, Vierge had attained a distinguished position at his death in 1904, with critics praising the elegance, immediacy and realism of his work. This exhibition of almost 50 works offers a rare opportunity to reappraise this talented figure.

In Vierge’s lifetime, connoisseurs prized his drawings for their technical mastery and realism. Furthermore, he created them to illustrate books and journals and, as such, they found a large admiring public. Technological advances also meant that publishers could offer increasingly faithful versions of his works, so that these volumes provided an authentic representation of his images. Vierge thus presents two faces to modern viewers, his original sketches and the prints made after them. This exhibition will examine the relation between the two by drawing on the Hispanic Society’s collection to exhibit both his watercolors and gouaches and the prints made after them.

Throughout his career, Vierge offered a realistic, yet vivid, vision of Spain and its literary characters. His compositions for the classics of Spanish literature, in particular Cervante’s Don Quixote and Quevedo’s El buscon (The Swindler), occupy a special place in the history of art.

Daniel Urrabieta Vierge, “And Filled with Hatred,” illustration for José Zorrilla’s El escultor y el duque, gouache.

Vierge’s Don Quixote successfully incorporates somemore adventurous features within a fundamentally realist andconservative vision. His objective characterization of the humbleinns, rooms in the duke’s palace, or the broad expanses of LaMancha reflect his firsthand observations in Spain.

Vierge’s illustrations for Quevedo’s El buscon constituted his greatest achievements in the eyes of his contemporaries. In these images, Vierge masterfully evokes the underworld of thieves and criminals. Because Vierge includes no details of costumes or buildings that explicitly evoke the Spain of his day as he had done in Don Quixote, Quevedo’s characters inhabit a past that seems more distant than that of Cervantes’s knight.

Vierge did not work exclusively illustrating Spanish classics but illustrated a broad range of French literature of his day. Here, too, he displayed great flair capturing many different moods and scenes. For instance, his designs for the novel The Tavern of Three Virtue, admirably capture the suspense of key moments in the plot: coaches being held up, sword fights and the rescue of maidens.

The Hispanic Society of America is at 613 West 155th Street. For information, www.hispanicsociety.org or 212-926-2234.