Charles Clifford and the monumental record of Spain

  SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 - FEBRUARY 8, 2026
Commissioners: Javier Piñar and Carlos Sánchez
Space: Rooms Floor -1

For the first time, MUN reveals the complete works of Charles Clifford, the British photographer who showed Monumental Spain to the world. 

The image of Spain during the 19th century cannot be conceived without the figure of British photographer Charles Clifford (1819-1863), a pioneer in using photography as a novel instrument for projecting the image of our country internationally. He belongs to the generation of early photography professionals who used the calotype as a tool for research and the projection of new themes and forms of expression.

Interested in everything that was happening in Spain, but also conditioned by the varied nature of the commissions he had to accept in order to survive, his work encompasses a wide range of subjects. And they coexist with a great deal of harmony, as if they were all part of the same photographic discourse aimed at showing Spaniards the values of their own country and surprising European viewers with the uniqueness of that world that stretched beyond the Pyrenees, half in the East and half in the West, straddling the picturesque past and modernity. His concern for the entity and future of Spain's monumental heritage stands out, focusing his attention and guiding the thematic selection he makes in his Álbum Monumental de España (Monumental Album of Spain), the project that is the focus of this exhibition.
 

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