In the summer 1934 after a cancelled painting trip to Russia, Bomberg and Lilian resolved to return to Spain. Lilian later recalled 'He knew the landscape suited him, and life was very much cheaper in Spain'. The enthusiasm of the Bradford collectors, Arthur Crossland, Asa Lingard and Wyndham Vint, for the Toledo paintings from the 1929 visit, encouraged him further.

The journey began in Cuenca, commencing through Santander, Santillana, and Ronda, culminating in the four-month visit to the Asturian mountains in the midsummer of 1935. The cold and rain of Ronda prompted them to move on in search of warmer weather for the family now included the new-born baby Diana. The mountain expedition was treacherous and gruelling and the weather just as unpredictable but Bomberg later recalled the stunning beauty of the landscape 'When I searched Picos de Europa for an entry to paint its wonder, how glad I was of this road, for it climbs in one place the outer heights of the Picos and runs through a clustering village, steeped at times in rain clouds, at times shimmering in the sun'.

The political situation was growing unstable however and in November the family managed to catch the last boat to England before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
(See R. Cork, David Bomberg, London, 1987, pp.202-18)