Margaret Manso (1908 - 1960) was an outstanding Spanish painter belonging to the so-called Generation of 27. This group of artists featured famous people such as Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca, for whom the artist served as muse, a role in which she would be more recognized.
Her first husband, Alfonso Ponce de León, made her most emblematic portraits. Together with Maruja Mallo, she was part of a very notorious group of women in her time, called “Las sinsombrero”. Her image was associated with that of a liberal, independent woman, with a modern bearing and authentic beauty..
Failure to comply with status quo established by society, together with rebellion, were its hallmarks. However, both of her marriages were to very conservative men. The Spanish Civil War dramatically marked his life; for this reason she would spend her last years very suspicious about her past.
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Margarita Manso Robredo was born in Valladolid, on November 24, 1908. She came from a middle-class family. She was the second daughter of the union between the dressmaker Carmen Robledo Daguerre, and the office manager Luis Manso López, who worked at the Gabilondo foundry..
The artist's father died early at age 31, an event that deeply affected him. For reasons not clarified, his family settled shortly after in Madrid, where the mother practiced her trade. In the Spanish capital he attended the San Fernando Academy, where Julio Romero de Torres was his most prominent teacher.
In this educational complex, the painter made a great friendship with Maruja Mallo and Alfonso Ponce León (whom she married in 1933), serving as a constant source of inspiration in her outstanding paintings. Mallo later introduced her with his close friends, Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca..
The Generation of '27 was thus formed. The story of the visit of the group of friends to the Santo Domingo de Silos monastery is very famous: as the entrance was exclusively for men, Maruja Mallo and Margarita Manso decided to disguise themselves as men and thus they were able to visit the monastery.
This "surrealist" essay was executed by Dalí, García Lorca, Manso and Mallo as a way of confronting certain absurd norms. At that time it was unthinkable to go to public spaces with your head uncovered, but that was exactly what happened in La Puerta del Sol in Madrid in the early 1920s..
Maruja Mallo narrated in this regard: "One day it occurred to Federico, Dalí, Margarita and I to take off our hats because it seemed that we were congesting ideas, as we crossed the Puerta del Sol, they stoned us calling us everything." Quite a radical act, given the context.
In the midst of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, uncovering the head was interpreted as an act of rebellion, especially among women. It meant female vindication, freeing herself from moral ties and clearly expressing her dissatisfaction with an imposed, exclusive role as wife and mother..
Her graceful profile and her demeanor as a modern and liberal woman made her the muse of the Generation of 27. In addition, she was always dressed in an avant-garde way. Admired and portrayed with devotion by her husband Alfonso Ponce de León. He also inspired Dalí and García Lorca.
With the latter he had a brief erotic episode that the poet reflected in "Muerto de Amor" within his Gypsy romance. Apparently Manso was the only woman for whom García Lorca publicly declared his love, since it is believed that the poet was homosexual, and there is a firm belief in an unrequited love for Dalí.
The bloody armed conflict unleashed in 1933 meant the public disappearance of the works of Margarita Manso. In December of that same year, she married Alfonso Ponce de León, who was a militant Falangist. He was kidnapped at the door of his home in La Castellana on September 30, 1936 by the Francoists..
During 1936, the dictatorship took everything from Margarita Manso. Her husband was found dead in a gutter on October 9. Months before, on August 18, García Lorca was shot, as was his father-in-law, Juan Ponce de León (September 30) and his brother-in-law Guillermo (November 7).
His mother and sister were forced into exile. The muse of the Generation of 27 began to disappear all traces (and works) of her past. To such an extent that her children were unaware of the experiences of their teenage mother. All this was tearing the soul of the artist during her last years.
In 1938, Manso collaborated on illustrations of posters for the theater of Dionisio Ridruejo, a close friend of Ponce de León. Then, in 1940, she married Dr. Enrique Conde Gargollo, a Francoist doctor who represented in an antagonistic way the spirit of the young Margarita.
Her second husband published complete works by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, in which Manso made occasional collaborations. It was his last known work. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. He finally died, relatively young, at 51 years of age, in Madrid, on March 28, 1960..
Although the biological cause of her death was cancer, her mother stated that the true cause was the immense sadness of her daughter as a result of the death of her loved ones and the repression. The woman who once had such a liberal character and was a recognized avant-garde feminist, spent her later years denying her past.
Margarita Manso was an outstanding painter, but there are very few reliable records of her work. Being an active member of the Generation of '27, it is presumed that he entered the surrealist movement due to the enormous influence of Dalí; therefore, the handling of classical and modern elements within his compositions should have been evident.
Concha Mayordomo summarizes about the artist: “Margarita Manso's biography is so powerful that the maxim of the character that annuls the work is fulfilled… it has not been possible to find in an easily accessible way not a single image of her paintings, illustrations, sketches of decorations or posters ... ".
Due to the above, there are no references to Manso's works. The events that she experienced during 1936 led her to a nervous breakdown that ended in a severe depression, her work was thus nullified, both by her and by history..
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