Antonio Sánchez Araujo (1887–1946) was a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n ''

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 ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, during the early years of the Cuban republic. His paintings have been admired for their strong colorful and definite techniques. He was born in Santa Lucía,

Oriente Province Oriente (, "East") was the easternmost province of Cuba until 1976. The term "Oriente" is still used to refer to the eastern part of the country, which currently is divided into five different provinces. Fidel and Raúl Castro were born in a sm ...

, in 1887. He formally started his

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

and painting studies at that institution located in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Early Education

From 1918, he continued his education in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, moved from

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 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, and lived one year in each city. Later, he moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and lived there for three years and completed his education in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, thanks to a 5-year

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

granted by the Congress of the Republic of Cuba. In Paris, he took lessons for three years in the Colarossi and

Grande Chaumiere Grande means "large" or "great" in many of the Romance languages. It may also refer to: Places * Grande, Germany, a municipality in Germany * Grande Communications, a telecommunications firm based in Texas * Grande-Rivière (disambiguation) * Ar ...

Academies. Zavala (1992) reports that part of his training was to copy paintings of the Grand Masters at the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Awards and recognitions

During his life he received several recognitions, including the following: * 1918 - His work was displayed in the Palace of the Cuban Senate in at solo show; * 1919 - “Solo” exhibition in Gayetanas Galleries in Barcelona; * 1918 to 1928 - “Solo” exhibition at the Association of Painters and Sculptors from Havana; * 1920 to 1921 - Participate in a collective show in the Autumn Salon of Madrid; * 1921-“Solo” exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Madrid; * 1922- At The Bohemia Salon in Havana in 1922; * 1925- In

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 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in a collective show; * 1926- His work was exhibited in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, where he won a

Bronze Medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

prize with the artwork La Silla de Gibara or The Gibara’s Chair; * 1930- He was also presented an exhibits in the city of Baltimore; Participated in a collective show, where he earned a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

; * 1932- He participated in a collective show at the Lyceum Society from Havana, where he earned his second gold medal; * 1940- Participation in the exhibit 300 Años de Arte en Cuba (300 Years of Art in Cuba), at the University of Havana.

Later life

Sánchez Araujo served as the Director of the Free School of Fine Arts, from 1926 to 1929. At the same time, since 1926, he also served as a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at San Alejandro Academy School. Sánchez Araujo also had an administrative position at the San Alejandro Academy School as the Assistant Principal of the academy at the same time that he was teaching Drawing of the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

. Antonio Sánchez Araujo, died in La Havana, Cuba on September 13, 1946.

His Legacy

Antonio Sánchez Araujo cultivated, with special preference, the

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

and

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

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 for ...

s, in addition to popular artworks. In

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, his work was presented in the Bacardi Gallery, in the Exhibit titled Pintura y Litografia Cubanas (Cuban Painting and Lithography), in 1988. The Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona Beach presented one of his works during 2005. “La Rumba”.Sanchez Araujo, Antonio. “La rumba”. n.d. Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach. Cuban Foundation Museum Cubasincadenas. Web. 24 September 2009. Several Galleries in Florida and Mexico City also exhibited some of his work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez Araujo, Antonio Cuban painters Cuban expatriates in Spain Cuban expatriates in France Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière Académie Colarossi alumni 1887 births 1946 deaths