Ángel María de Rosa (February 12, 1888 - February 26, 1970) was an Argentine sculptor and philanthropist.

Life and work

Ángel María de Rosa was born in Junín, a

pampas The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil ...

city in northern

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

, in 1888. His parents Vicente De Rosa and Maria Pernicola were Italian immigrants. He enrolled in the Society for the Stimulus of Fine Arts, in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, while in his teens, and later transferred to the Bon Marché Arts Academy, where his teachers were renowned local painters

Ernesto de la Cárcova Ernesto de la Cárcova y Arrotea (March 3, 1866 – December 28, 1927) was an Argentine painter of the Realist school. Life and work Ernesto de la Cárcova was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1866. Taking an early interest in the canvas, h ...

and

Pío Collivadino Pío Collivadino (August 20, 1869August 26, 1945) was an Argentine painter of the post-impressionist school. Life and work Pío Collivadino was born in Buenos Aires, in 1869. He studied drawing at the Italian Argentine cultural society, the ''S ...

. His training took him to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, where he studied at the

Florentine Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze ("academy of fine arts of Florence") is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy. It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. ...

, until 1903, and in the Institute of Fine Arts in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. Graduating in 1913, he received a First Prize from the Italian Ministry of Education before returning to Argentina. His work, ''La Visionaria'', earned him the same recognition at the

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely se ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, in 1915. In 1920 he married Franca Pacini in Rome with whom he had one daughter Berta. De Rosa and Pacini divorced in 1938. He exhibited his

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

and

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

sculptures in 1928 in both Rome and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and at the latter event, he sponsored fellow Argentine artist

Benito Quinquela Martín Benito Quinquela Martín (March 1, 1890 – January 28, 1977) was an Argentine painter. Quinquela Martín is considered the port painter-par-excellence and one of the most popular Argentine painters. His paintings of port scenes show the activ ...

, a landscape painter who would later create Buenos Aires' well-known Caminito.Museo Municipal de Arte: Ángel María de Rosa
/ref> His 1943 gift of most of his own works, as well as of much of the art he had collected in Europe to his native Junín resulted in the 1944 creation of the Junín Municipal Museum of Fine Arts. Lacking its own facilities, the museum relocated to a series of temporary locations and was initially maintained by de Rosa and a fellow sculptor, Juan Donato Comuni. Comuni's death in 1962, however, was followed by de Rosa's own in 1970, at age 82.MUMA
/ref> The museum languished after his death, though the city's allocation of an ornate, former market hall led to its re-establishment as the

Ángel María de Rosa Municipal Museum of Art Angel is a given name meaning "angel", " messenger". In the English-speaking world Angel is used for both boys and girls. From the medieval Latin masculine name ''Angelus'', which was derived from the name of the heavenly creature (itself derived ...

, in 1978.

References

1888 births 1970 deaths Argentine sculptors Argentine male artists Male sculptors People from Junín, Buenos Aires 20th-century sculptors {{Argentina-sculptor-stub