Countess and international socialite Carmen Thyssen obviously assembled her impressively deep collection of Spanish art from the mid-19th to early 20th Centuries with an eye to the paintings' purpose. Some of the most interesting were genre paintings that bordered on kitsch -- rosy-cheeked maidens at grilled windows entertaining suitors, peasants dancing at festivals, brawls disrupting taverns. Many of these were executed in 12" X 18" formats so that 19th Century tourists could transport them back to England or America as souvenirs. One whole gallery was devoted to seascapes, several of them large format. The most technically impressive paintings showed interior scenes, such as altar boys in a cathedral, with remarkably rendered silks and brodades.