Andrés de Santa Maria

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Self-Portrait (1910)
El te (1890)

Andrés de Santa Maria (born December 16, 1860 in Bogotá , Colombia , † April 29, 1945 in Brussels , Belgium ) was the internationally best-known Colombian painter of his time and a pioneer of Impressionism in Colombia. His work was idiosyncratic and marked the beginning of modern art in Colombia. Santa Maria's search for new artistic means of expression caused rejection and controversy about his work. He lived most of his life in Europe.

Early life

Andrés de Santa Maria Hurtado was born on December 16, 1860, the third son of Andrés de Santa Maria Rovira and Manuela Hurtado in Bogotá , Colombia . He was part of a well-off family with links in politics; both his grandfather and father worked in high positions in the Colombian government. In 1862, when he was two years old, his parents took him to Europe. The family lived in London until they moved to Brussels in 1869 . When his father got a job at the Colombian embassy in France in 1878 , the family moved to Paris . Santa Maria's desire to become a painter was met with opposition from his parents, who forced him to pursue a career in finance. For a while he worked as a bank clerk, but after his father's death in 1882 he was finally able to study painting. He entered the art school and was a participant in the courses of Ferdinand Jacques Humbert and Henri Gervex . Prince Eugene of Sweden and the Spanish painter Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta studied with him under Gervex's guidance. The Impressionist art movement had a great influence on Santa Maria's work, but he was also interested in social aspects, as was expressed in the works of Alfred Roll and through him it also became through realism and the paintings of Jean-François Millet and Gustave Courbet directed.

Santa Maria first gained recognition when he won a first prize and was invited to the Salon de Paris in 1887 with his painting "The Washer on the Seine" . This large and ambitious painting already shows elements of impressionism in the depiction of light and its interest in social aspects.

He participated in the salons of 1888, 1889 and 1890. During this early period, Santa Maria painted a number of different works in the style of Courbet in works such as: "Die Schützen" (1885), "Die Lesung" (1886) and "Salomón F. Koppel" (1889). These paintings also show Santa Maria's clear mastery of the rules of the Academy. In 1891 he exhibited the painting "The Tea Party" at the Paris Artists' Association. It is one of the best works of his early period, after which he left Europe and returned to Colombia.

Colombia

Andrés de Santa Maria married Amalia Bidwell Hurtado on January 25, 1893 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz and had eight children with her. In 1894 the couple decided to return to Colombia, where they then lived for nearly two decades. Shortly after his arrival in Bogotá, Santa Maria became a professor of landscape painting at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (German: National Academy of Fine Arts), to which he brought the knowledge he had acquired in France. However, his work as an avant-garde who broke with the traditions of academic painting was controversial in Colombia.

During the Colombian Civil War, the War of the Thousand Days , the Academy was closed and Santa Maria made a long tour of Europe. In Paris he took part in the salon with his painting “Los dragoniantes de la guardian inglesa” , which received a letter of congratulations from the jurors. At the end of the War of the Thousand Days, he returned to Colombia, where he was appointed Director of the Art Academy in 1904. He held this position for the rest of his stay in his home country.

While running the academy, he also founded the School of Decorative and Industrial Arts, which also taught other techniques such as pottery, sculpture, and blacksmithing. In 1910 he organized an exhibition which accompanied the centenary of Colombia's independence and in which he participated with 46 of his works.

As an artist, Santa Maria was not widely recognized in Colombia and his work as director of the academy was fraught with controversy. Under the concentrated criticism, he decided to resign and left Colombia not to return.

Next life

Santa Maria returned to Europe in 1911. He traveled with his family to England, the Netherlands and France before settling in Brussels. When the First World War broke out , he moved to Paris, where he became friends with the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle . During the war he traveled to London and then settled in San Sebastian , where he stayed until 1918.

After the end of the war he returned to Brussels. During this third period of his career he gained recognition as a painter in art exhibitions, around 1936 in Brussels and 1937 in London. He took up the modern tendencies of European art but remained inspired by the great masters like el Greco. Santa Maria remained active into the last years of his life and exhibited many of his works.

His work can be divided into three different development periods. In his early works, made while living in France, color and light are of great importance. His second creative period began when he returned to Colombia. The style in this period is within Divisionism and uses pure colors, harmony and contrast. His last period begins with his return to Europe. He used a richer imagery and used knives and spatulas to apply thick layers of paint. The shapes became denser and more vivid.

Andrés de Santamaria died on April 29, 1945 at the age of eighty-five of a kidney infection. After his death, many of his works were exhibited, the most notable of which was the Museo Nacional de Colombia in 1949 and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá in 1971 when 126 of his paintings were shown.

bibliography

  • Martinez Betancour: William, Andrés de Santamaria, Biblioteca Virtual del Banco de la República, 2004.
  • Andrés de Santamaria: Exh. cat. Museo Nacional de Bogotá and Musée Marmottan, Paris. 1986

Web links

Commons : Andrés de Santa Maria  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d "Andrés de Santa Maria". Martinez Betancour, William
  2. ↑ a b c "Andrés de Santa Maria". Villegas Editores
personal data
SURNAME Santa Maria, Andrés de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Bogotá
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1945
Place of death Brussels , Belgium