Sign-In
Cart
Beautiful Lightning That Lasts Moreno Villa & Jacinta
Paperback
Art HistoryLiterary FiguresLiterary Criticism
Publisher Price: $36.00
ISBN13: 9781961056190
Publisher: Swan Isle Press
Published: Dec 3 2026
Pages: 250
Weight: 1.00
Language: Spanish
Uncovers the life and influence of Florence Ruth Louchheim, the inspiration behind Spanish poet and painter José Moreno Villa's Jacinta la pelirroja.
In 1926, Spanish poet and painter José Moreno Villa met a recent Radcliffe graduate at the Residencia de Estudiantes who changed his life forever and inspired the verses of his most famous book of poems, Jacinta la pelirroja (1929). He never revealed the true identity of his muse, and for many years, all that was known about her was that she had come to Madrid to attend the summer courses for foreigners held at the Residencia, where Moreno Villa lived between 1917 and 1936, serving as an informal tutor to students like GarcÃa Lorca, Luis Buñuel, and Salvador DalÃ.
A passionate romance soon blossomed, leading the couple to make plans for marriage. However, after a trip to New York for her father--a Wall Street millionaire--to meet her future husband, the couple's breakup was sealed. In this book, Christopher Maurer, an authority on Spanish poetry, recounts the life and fortune of the mysterious Jacinta, whose real name was Florence Ruth Louchheim, an ardent defender of modern art who, in later life, would confront her social class and put her money at the service of painting. The Spanish artist's tumultuous relationship with Florence, his visit to New York, and his clash with American pragmatism marked a turning point in his life--a sort of beautiful lightning reflected in his later pictorial and literary works, created both in Madrid and, after his exile due to the civil war, in Mexico, where by chance he met Florence again.
In Beautiful Lighting that Lasts, the love story is intertwined with the teaching of art in Harvard's fabled Museum Course, the unsettling encounter of a Spaniard with the religious and racial differences of American modernity, and Florence's life as a collector in the vibrant New York art scene of the 1940s and 50s. Profusely illustrated with paintings, sketches, and photographs, this co-publication with Madrid's Residencia de Estudiantes also offers selected poems excerpted from Jacinta la pelirroja by José Moreno Villa translated by Lauren Szenderski.
Also from
Maurer, Christopher
Finding Duende: Duende: Play and Theory Imagination, Inspiration, Evasion
García Lorca, Federico
Paperback
Also in
Literary Figures
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
Sachs, Aaron
Hardcover
Hidden Hemingway: Inside the Ernest Hemingway Archives of Oak Park
Vetch, Aaron
Cirino, Mark
Elder
Hardcover
Go Deep and Take Plenty of Root: A Prairie-Norwegian Father, Rebellion in Minneapolis, Basement Zen, Growing Up, Growing Tender
Storlie, Erik Fraser
Paperback
Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe
Ogden, Emily
Hardcover
Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Steinbeck, John
Paperback
Plot Twist: Life, Craft, and the Messy First Draft: A Memoir on Writing (Large Print Edition)
Coben, Harlan
Paperback
The Agatha Christie Cure: What Reading the Queen of Crime Taught Me about Life
Rentzenbrink, Cathy
Hardcover
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Romney, Rebecca
Paperback
Miss Greene's Secret: Based on the True Story of the Black Librarian Who Shaped the Morgan Library
Antona, Nicolas
Hardcover
Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
Greenblatt, Stephen
Hardcover
The Village on the Edge of the World: Writing and Surviving in Ceausescu's Romania
Müller, Herta
Hardcover
Eleven Days: The Fascinating True Account of Agatha Christie's Mysterious Disappearance
Thompson, Laura
Hardcover
Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear: A. A. Milne and the Creation of Winnie-The-Pooh
Brandreth, Gyles
Hardcover
Three by Annie Dillard: The Writing Life, an American Childhood, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Dillard, Annie
Paperback
The War for Middle-Earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933-1945
Loconte, Joseph
Hardcover
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Winchester, Simon
Paperback
The Lightning-Bug and the Lightning: Debunking the Myths of Mark Twain, in His Own Words
Dawidziak, Mark
Hardcover
String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis: A Library of America Special Publication
Wallace, David Foster
Hardcover
The Apostle of Tennessee: The Indefatigable Life and Ministry of Father Aloysius Orengo
Pagetta, Joe
Paperback
Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
Greenblatt, Stephen
Paperback
The Making of Middle-Earth: The Worlds of Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings
Snyder, Christopher A.
Hardcover
Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway's Masterpiece the Sun Also Rises
Blume, Lesley M. M.
Paperback
Henry and June: From a Journal of Love: The Unexpurgated Diary (1931-1932) of Anais Nin
Nin, Anaïs
Paperback
From Typewriter to Takeoff: The Life of Journalist and Aviatrix Harriet Quimby
Tyler, Norman
Paperback
Mon Cher Amour: The Love Letters of Albert Camus and Maria Casares, 1944-1959
Camus, Albert
Hardcover