Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz

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Federico de Madrazo (1875)
Artist signature of Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz
La Condesa de Vilches , oil on canvas, 126 × 89 cm (1853), Museo del Prado

Federico de Madrazo (* 9. February 1815 in Rome ; † 10. June 1894 in Madrid ) was a Spanish painter and lithographer of romance and 1860 to 1868 and from 1881 until his death Director of the Museo del Prado .

Life

Madrazo was the child of a Spanish dynasty of painters. His father was the painter José de Madrazo y Agudo . His brother Louis and his son Raimundo also took up the painting profession, while his brothers Pedro and Juan were active as critics and architects.

Federico de Madrazo's parents met in Rome; his mother was German. He was baptized in St. Peter ; his godfather was Prince Friedrich of Saxony. The family moved to Madrid in 1819.

Federico de Madrazo received his first artistic training from his father, from Carlos Luis de Rivera, Esteban Velazquez and José Aparicion. As a youngster of fourteen he painted a resurrection scene , which was acquired by Queen Maria Christina .

He attended the Royal Academy of San Fernando . In 1832 he went to Paris , where he continued his studies with Franz Xaver Winterhalter and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres . Back in Madrid in 1835, he founded the art magazine El Artista with his brother Pedro and Eugenio de Ochoa . After another stay in Paris in 1837, he moved to Rome in 1840, where he met the German Nazarenes and felt drawn to them. His picture, The Three Marys, is the result of this encounter. In 1842 he finally returned to Madrid, where he was appointed court painter to Queen Isabella II . He was awarded gold medals at the national exhibitions of Spain in 1838, 1839 and 1855. In 1846 he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

This was followed on July 19, 1868, the appointment as director of the Museo del Prado, which he had sought three years earlier and the president of the Academy of San Fernando; an office he held nine times. During his time as director of the Prado, he commissioned a new version of the catalog and was anxious to expand the collections further. In 1867, the museum, which had been considerably expanded since its foundation, was so overcrowded on Sundays that room folders had to be set. With the fall and flight of Isabella II in 1868, changes occurred for the Prado: the museum was nationalized. Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz submitted his resignation as museum director on November 19, 1868. From May 14, 1881 until his death he was again director of the Prado. In 1873 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts .

Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz's sons Ricardo and Raimondo also took up the profession of painter. His daughter Cecila married the painter Mariano Fortuny y Carbó . Federico de Madrazo is buried in the Cementerio de San Isidro in Madrid.

plant

Madrazo's work, which is assigned to the Romantic period, mainly includes portraits , especially of the Spanish nobility, history paintings and pictures with religious themes. While he initially attached importance to careful and precise reproduction of details, his painting later became "freer and more comprehensive". One of his students in Madrid was the French painter Léon Bonnat (1833–1922), and José Casado del Alisal , Alejandro Ferrant y Fischermans , José Garnelo and Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz are also mentioned.

literature

  • Kindler's Painting Lexicon . tape 8 . Kindler, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-463-41008-7 , p. 281 f .

Web links

Commons : Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Kindler's painting lexicon . tape 8 . Kindler, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-463-41008-7 , p. 281 f .
  2. ^ A b Canton Sanchez: The Prado . German Book Association, Berlin, Darmstadt, Vienna 1959, p. 58–66 (French: Trésors de la peinture au Prado . Translated by Alfred P. Zeller).
  3. ^ Find a grave . Retrieved January 27, 2013
  4. ^ "Federico de Madrazo is considered as the leading Romantic Spanish Painter, [...]" Andrew Whittaker: Spain: Be Fluent in Spanish Life and Culture . Thorogood Publishing, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-85418-605-8 , pp. 126 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ^ Léon Bonnat. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 6, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Madrazo y Kuntz, Federico de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Madrazo, Federico de; Madrazo Kuntz, Federico de; Madrazo Küntz, Federico de; Madrazo y Küntz, Federico de; Küntz, Federico de Madrazo y; Kuntz, Federico de Madrazo y
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish painter and lithographer, director of the Museo del Prado
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1894
Place of death Madrid