The photographic collection of Javier de Winthuysen: a preface to its value and usefulness

Abstract

The painter and landscape painter Javier de Winthuysen generated a large amount of photographic material throughout his life. The Sevillian turned to photography in search of a tool to facilitate his pictorial and landscape work. This collection, now preserved in the archives of the Royal Botanical Garden, is an essential way to understand the mentality and artistic vision, as well as the landscape spirit of J. de Winthuysen. This legacy also allows us to understand the changes established in Spanish gardens and their idiosyncrasy. All of this is contained in these photographic pieces that captured an instant, nowadays, of the past.