The Huerta de San Vicente was inaugurated with its contents in furnishings, paintings, and other belongings that were in the house when it was purchased by the City Hall of Granada. In 1995, the only reliable documents that reflected the furnishings on the whole were a series of photographs from the period 1926-1936, among them a number taken in 1935 by the writer Eduardo Blanco-Amor. Moreover, family photographs dating back as far as 1918 show other places where the García Lorca family had lived and some of the pieces of furniture, works of art and other objects that can be seen today in the Huerta de San Vicente. These photographs clearly evidence the original quality of the furniture that currently decorates the space of the House-Museum: in them we see the poet´s desk, the gramophone and its pedestal, the baby grand piano, the divan, rocking chairs and Thonet chairs, the reproduction of Boticelli´s Spring, and the mirror with the art deco frame, among other objects of lesser importance. Also of great documental usefulness were the testimonies and remembrances of persons who lived at the Huerta, most notably Isabel García Lorca and Vicenta and Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, Federico´s niece and nephew.
The rest of the furnishings, along with household objects (porcelain plates, ceramic pieces, and odds and ends such as the coat rack, the tablecloth and the cheese dish) along with documents and works of art that can now be seen in the House-Museum, were either part of the furnishings in the Huerta between 1926 and 1936, or else belonged at some point in time to the Lorca family, according to the oral testimony of the family members mentioned above.
However, the House-Museum does not attempt to disguise the inevitable elements of fiction, as what the vistitor sees does not coincide exactly with the atmosphere in which the García Lorca family lived. The differences between the different objects are underlined (those documented as original, those pertaining to the García Lorca family, and those simply dating from that time period or atmosphere), as is their relationship with the house during the period 1926-1936. The setting on the whole strikes one as simple and elegant, and tries to relay aspects of the life and work of Federico García Lorca by means of an impressionistic stroll through the spaces of his domestic intimacy. While acknowledging a certain tension between scientific authenticity and touristic veracity, between memory and myth, the House-Museum hopes to leave guests with a better knowledge of the life and the work of Lorca by the end of their visit.
A place of historic and literary memory, in addition to a core of life and creation (1926-1936), a walk through the House-Museum of the Huerta de San Vicente allows one to re-experience and comprehend aspects such as:
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The atmosphere and decoration of a Granada country home from the early 20th century. |
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Specific elements of the everyday life of the García Lorca family. |
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The works written in the Huerta by Federico García Lorca. |
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The artistic company and friendships of the poet, trasmitted through the collections displayed in the House-Museum (works of art, objects, etc.). |
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The subtle connection of landscape and emotions, between the Huerta and the city, perceived through the eyes and the works of the poet. |
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The events that took place between the 14th of July and the 9th of August of 1936. |
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