Barracas’ Long Street

Carlos Morel is situated among the nation’s first artists of significance on account of the plastic quality of his works, that transcends being merely informative or documentary, which was usual during that era.
This is one of the most relevant of the works by this Argentinean artist. In it, the street currently known as Montes de Oca can be seen, extending from the bank southward toward the Riachuelo River as a road lined by poplars. This street was the city’s only entrance and exit route to the territories to the South, which explains the abundant caravan of carts in procession that appears in the foreground. It used to be called the “Calle Larga” in times of the Federation, and prior to that, “Santa Lucía”, and it was also the route chosen for driving cattle to the city’s slaughterhouses. The meat salting houses can be seen in the furthest plane of the painting, along the shores of the Riachuelo. To the left in the composition, the Santa Lucía chapel is located, which would later give rise to the church that stands there today, built in honor of the same saint in 1884. To the right, the country houses of the Llavallol and Moreno families can be seen. The neighborhood of Barracas and Bajada de Santa Lucía, as this zone was known, was the area chosen by Buenos Aires’ wealthy families to construct their summer country homes in the mid-19th century. The Balcarce, Montes de Oca and Álzaga families coexisted with the precarious constructions –from whence comes the neighborhood’s name– that served to store leather and salted meat. In addition, there were also some livestock farms.
The zone was thought of as a sprawling place ideal for open air strolls among the trees. People on walks and a group of women who observe the scene from the bluff to the right evidence this practice.
In this piece Morel elaborates a panoramic view in plein air, with a late afternoon sky, painted with free brushstrokes and a way of handling color that would make him an involuntary precursor of Impressionism.