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The Art of La Cabaña
As part of the faithful recreation of the legendary La Cabaña restaurant in Buenos Aires, Orient-Express Hotels has gathered a rare collection of original watercolours, oil paintings and pencil drawings by Argentine artists, as well as sculptures and gaucho artefacts. The main focus of the art collection is 15 original paintings by the internationally acclaimed Argentine artist Florencio Molina Campos. The paintings are Molina Campos' signature caricatures of swaggering gauchos and suave polo players in pencil, watercolour, oil and tempera. |
Orient-Express Hotels also commissioned a bronze sculpture from the British artist John W Mills entitled Degas Dancing – Tribute to Edgar Degas, which perfectly captures the spirit of the tango dancers for which the city is famous. The sculpture, which shows the French artist dancing with his model, was shipped to Buenos Aires from the UK. It now stands at the foot of the stairs in the main dining room. Degas Dancing is one of a collection of six pieces inspired by Edgar Degas. According to Mills, 'The subject matter for this series is based on an account I read of Edgar Degas sometime habit of arriving at his studio and finding the model ready to work, but feeling disinclined to start just then and still dressed in his street clothes asks for dance.' | |
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'After a brief turn about the studio he raises his hat and thanking the girl, leaves the studio for the afternoon, probably for a meal. I am an admirer of Degas and like the eccentricity of the image evoked by that brief account.'
This is the third bronze that Orient-Express Hotels has commissioned from John W Mills. The artist also created the statue of St. George which stands in the courtyard in front of the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans and the four horses in the waterfall guarding the entrance of Charleston Place in South Carolina.
Born in London in 1933, Mills’ other works in public places include the William Blake Memorial at Blake House in London, Brother at the University Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA and Thoughtful Girl at the Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. |
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