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José Villegas Cordero (26 August 1844,
@ Conocer Sevilla. But, in 1860, when he was still only sixteen, he sold one of his works at the "Exposición Sevillana" for 2,000 Reales. This changed his family's mind and he was apprenticed to the painter José María Romero López, staying with him for two years before enrolling at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, where he studied with Eduardo Cano.Biography
@ MCN Biografías.
In 1867, he travelled to Madrid, where found work in the studios of
Biography, with details of his tenure as Director. Near the end of 1868, with financial assistance from his family, he decided to visit Rome with some of his friends and spent time in the workshop of
After 1877, he often lived in
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...
– 9 November 1921, Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
) was a Spanish painter of historical, genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other f ...
and costumbrista
''Costumbrismo'' (sometimes anglicized as costumbrism, with the adjectival form costumbrist) is the literary or pictorial interpretation of local everyday life, mannerisms, and customs, primarily in the Hispanic scene, and particularly in the 19t ...
scenes.
Early life
His father ran a barbershop, and his family had their doubts about an artistic career.Biography@ Conocer Sevilla. But, in 1860, when he was still only sixteen, he sold one of his works at the "Exposición Sevillana" for 2,000 Reales. This changed his family's mind and he was apprenticed to the painter José María Romero López, staying with him for two years before enrolling at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, where he studied with Eduardo Cano.Biography
@ MCN Biografías.
In 1867, he travelled to Madrid, where found work in the studios of Federico de Madrazo
Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz (9 February 181510 June 1894) was a Spanish painter.
Biography
Born in Rome, he was the son of José de Madrazo y Agudo, the painter and former Director of the Prado Museum. Federico's grandfather on his mother side ...
.
While there, he spent time at the Museo del Prado
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...
, copying the works of Velázquez to perfect his technique. Finally, inspired by the works of the Orientalist painter Marià Fortuny
Marià Josep Maria Bernat Fortuny i Marsal (; es, Mariano José María Bernardo Fortuny y Marsal; June 11, 1838 – November 21, 1874), known more simply as Marià Fortuny or Mariano Fortuny, was the leading Spanish painter of his day, with an ...
, he organized an excursion to Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
.Museo del PradoBiography, with details of his tenure as Director. Near the end of 1868, with financial assistance from his family, he decided to visit Rome with some of his friends and spent time in the workshop of
Eduardo Rosales
Eduardo Rosales Gallinas (4 November 1836 – 13 September 1873) was a Spanish painter. He was an adherent of the Italian-based art movement known as " Purismo" and specialized in historical scenes.
Biography
He was born in Madrid. The second ...
.
It was there that he created his first costumbrista works, which proved to be very popular. He also began painting Orientalist scenes based on the numerous sketches he brought back from Morocco, and returned there briefly to collect more material. The vogue for these types of paintings was soon at its high point, and his works were widely promoted by the Bosch y Hernández galleries.
Career
After 1877, he often lived in Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
and produced works designed to be of interest to wealthy American buyers. By 1887, he was able to build a house, which he designed himself. It soon became a gathering place for high society. He also began accepting a small number of students.
In 1878, the Spanish Senate
The Senate ( es, Senado) is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid.
T ...
commissioned him to paint a large-scale historical work on the subject "Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
' interview with Moctezuma". The commission was cancelled four years later, but it inspired him to embark on a series of historical paintings. Later, a Dutch publishing company approached several major European artists to produce illustrations for a ''Magna Biblia''. Villegas was entrusted with depicting the prophecies in the Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century B ...
.
The 1890s began quietly but, in 1896, his younger brother Ricardo (who was also an artist) drowned after he fell off a boat on the Guadalquivir
The Guadalquivir (, also , , ) is the fifth-longest river in the Iberian Peninsula and the second-longest river with its entire length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is the only major navigable river in Spain. Currently it is navigable from the Gul ...
. This plunged him into depression and he began painting works of an ecclesiastical
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