IN PRIEGO DE CÓRDOBA – ADOLFO LOZANO SIDRO

ILLUSIONS

A novel by M. Maryam

Illustrations by Adolfo Lozano Sidro

Among the extensive work resulting from Adolfo Lozano Sidro’s collaboration with Blanco y Negro are the illustrations for novels published in chapters. Some were adventure novels, others mystery novels, and others romance novels, such as the one we present here: Illusions, written by M. Maryam, which was published between November and December 1920, with a total of 7 chapters accompanied by 16 illustrations by Lozano Sidro, of which we can enjoy a selection of 13 in this exhibition.

The romantic novel was very popular from the 18th century onwards, and its success has continued up to the present day. In the first half of the 20th century, where Illusions is set, romantic novels in Spain had a strong subjectivism, an interest in historical themes, strong Catholic values and, as the main theme, a stormy love story and a heroine with high moral values.

The story in Illusions tells of the youth of the orphan Regina, brought up in a convent school under the protection of the Mother Superior, who, when she comes of legal age, has to go and live with a distant aunt whom she does not know until she is able to get a good marriage thanks to her wealth and dowry. Before leaving with her aunt, she spends the summer with the family of Isabel, her close friend from school, and on these holidays she falls in love with Isabel’s brother, Lieutenant Alberto. However, when she later meets Alberto’s Colonel, she is attracted by his aura of sadness and, despite the age difference, decides to devote herself to making him happy.
Coincidence leads them to meet in the village where Regina lives with her tutor, which is the colonel’s hometown and where he suffered the heartbreak that marked him so much. That heartbreak was caused by a Regina’s cousin, who has a great physical resemblance to her, which makes Regina suspect that the colonel’s love is actually a memory of her true love. When she discovers that the break-up was due to causes beyond their control, she decides to put her happiness aside and make it possible for this couple to be happy again after so many years of suffering. Despite her own pain, in the course of these events, Regina realises that she did not really love Eduardo, she loved Isabel’s brother, whom she thought she had lost forever after his rejection in favour of the colonel. Finally life brings them back together in Cannes and both couples finally enjoy a happy marriage thanks to Regina’s good deeds.

 

The ABC Museum Hall
In the Lozano Sidro Museum in Priego de Córdoba you can visit the so-called Sala Museo ABC, which is permanently dedicated to the exhibition of small selections from the ABC Collection – since it contains more than 600 works by the Cordovan painter as a legacy of his collaboration with the ABC newspaper and the magazine Blanco y Negro from 1896 to 1935. For this reason, annual exhibitions are organised in the house that was his home and studio, the Lozano Sidro Museum.