Anselmo Ceballos Vega — Andalusian Staircase with Figure — Oil on canvas

Oil on canvas by Anselmo Ceballos Vega (Jerez de la Frontera, 1953), rendered in a small format and featuring a narrow staircase between whitewashed facades, at the end of which a female figure appears.

The composition relies on a pronounced upward perspective. The steps lead the eye from the foreground to the figure, situated next to a dark doorway that acts as the primary chromatic counterpoint within a scene dominated by whites, pale pinks, and earth tones.

Ceballos works the facades with abundant impasto and a loose brushstroke, avoiding rigid architectural description. The whitewashed walls retain irregularities, stains, and subtle tonal variations that provide texture and depth, while the steps are constructed using horizontal brushstrokes of ochre, mauve, and pink.

The small size of the figure accentuates the sense of depth and adds a narrative dimension to the scene. The human presence, barely sketched, introduces a point of daily life within a quiet, luminous architecture.

The work is signed “A. Ceballos” in the lower right corner. On the reverse, it retains an old biographical sheet of the artist with information about his training and early exhibitions.

Technical sheet

• Author: Anselmo Ceballos Vega
• Title: Andalusian staircase with figure
• Chronology: Second half of the 20th century, probably c. 1975–1985
• Technique: Oil on canvas
• Work dimensions: 22 × 17 cm
• Frame dimensions: 40 × 35 × 4 cm
• Signature: Signed “A. Ceballos” in the lower right corner
• Subject: Andalusian urban scene
• Style: Spanish figurative painting
• Condition: Good general visible condition, with signs typical of a period piece
• Frame: Wooden frame with fabric matting, included
• Reverse: Retains an old biographical sheet of the artist

About the artist

Anselmo Ceballos Vega was born in Jerez de la Frontera in 1953. He trained at the School of Arts and Crafts in Jerez and subsequently at the Massana School in Barcelona.

The documentation preserved on the reverse of this work notes his participation in collective and private exhibitions in Jerez during the seventies, as well as later exhibitions in Castellón. It also records the presence of his work in galleries in Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia, and Barcelona, in addition to references to the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Although his output is frequently associated with still life, Ceballos also cultivated landscape and urban scenes, showing a special interest in contrasts of light and a material-focused style of painting.

The Studio Note

In this small work, the use of white stands out particularly. Ceballos does not treat it as a uniform color: the facades are built using layers of cream, pink, gray, and small areas of thicker paint that reproduce the irregularity of the whitewashed walls.

The succession of steps creates a very marked perspective and makes the figure in the background the natural focal point for the eye. Her dark dress and the grayish-blue door contrast with the dominant luminosity and provide depth to a seemingly simple composition.

The small scale does not detract from the painting; on the contrary, it favors a concentrated and direct execution that well preserves the sense of light and space.