José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín
José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín (September 5, 1891- May 24, 1975) was a Uruguayan sculptor.
One of the pivotal sculptors from Uruguay, he have significant impact in the monuments of the capital city of Montevideo. His style displayed elements of aesthetic baroque incorporated with modern sculpture.
Biography
Early life
Born in 1891, he was the son of the writer Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, who served in the court of Alfonso XIII. For three years he moved to Paris, where he met Carlos Federico Sáez and would prove a strong influence in his interest and artistic style later. In 1898 he settled in Montevideo. His first oil painting portraits dating from 1906 show a great influence from Sáez. He studied at the Circulo de Bellas Artes with painter Vicente Puig and later received lessons from the sculptor Philip Menini (1909). Between 1911 and 1914, he made his firsts exhibitions.
Life in Europe
After receiving a scholarship from the Uruguayan government in 1914 to study in Munich, he had to stay in Florence due to the outbreak of World War I. He returned to Uruguay the following year and entered the Legislative Palace as an assistant sculptor. He won the International Competition to erect the monument Andalusia Gaucho (1922) and already married to Guma Muñoz del Campo, moved with their two daughters (Inés and Concepción, she will become the famous actress China Zorrilla) to Paris soon after, where he set up a workshop and studied under the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle.
The monument should be based in Brussels, as the best casting workshop of the French capital was occupied in the works of Antoine Bourdelle, who later would be linked as a disciple and friend. That same year, he made "Old vizcacha" and the statue of José Gervasio Artigas in Paraguay.
From that time is "Saint Joseph and Child", aimed at a church in the island of Saint Louis. Parallel attended workshops Maillol, Despiau and Drivier. Introduced in 1925 Source Athletes in the Salon d'Automne (now located in the Park Rodó Montevideo), which received the Silver Medal.
Return to Uruguay
In 1925 he returned to Uruguay and the following year the monument was inaugurated. Work of years: a monument to the Battle of Sarandi (1930), decoration of the chapel of the Prison for Women (1930), equestrian statue of the Grito de Asencio (1936) and the constituents obelisco 1830 (also 1936 , sparkling granite 41 meters high with three allegorical bronze installed in the Parque José Batlle y Ordóñez de Montevideo).
He won the international competition for the equestrian monument to Argentinean General Julio Roca (1937) and opened a workshop in Buenos Aires for its implementation.
That year the Bishop of recumbent monuments Mariano Soler, First Archbishop of Montevideo, located in the Cathedral of that city. He was invited to attend the Paris Exposition of 1937 and declared a "guest of honor." In 1940, in turn, was invited to travel to the United States. UU., By President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1947 made the statue of Artigas is located in the Banco de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay (opened in 1949).
The Monument to Artigas, commissioned by the government of Argentina, was made in 1960, but its opening was delayed until 1971.
In 1966, during the inauguration of statue of Artigas, was invited by the government of Italy to attend the ceremony and was awarded the title of Commander. Another statue, El Viejo Pancho, located in the Plaza de la Libertad de Montevideo street, dates from 1969.
Between 1940 and 1961, was the Director of the National Museum of Visual Arts in Montevideo.
Married to Guma Muñoz del Campo, had five daughters, the second is the famous actress Concepción China Zorrilla.
He died in Montevideo at 84 years of age.
His workshop in Punta Carretas is a museum next to the Museo Zorrilla devoted father.
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