Casimiro Sainz y Saiz (4 December 1853 – 19 August 1898) was a Spanish painter, known for his landscapes and portraits with interior scenes.
Biography
He was born in Matamorosa,
Campoo de Enmedio
Campoo de Enmedio is a municipality located in the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain. According to the 2007 census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given ...
. His father was a veterinarian and his uncle was the noted physiologist, . He was the youngest of ten children and his mother died of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
when he was eleven months old.
[Notes for a biography](_blank)
by Teodoro Pastor Martínez @ Cuadernos de Campoo.
At the age of thirteen, he was sent to Madrid to work at his brother-in-law's grocery store. It was there that he first took some drawing lessons. Weakness in his left leg made it impossible to do hard work, so he returned home.
@ Cantabria 102 Municipios. The problem was later diagnosed as a then-inoperable tumor (possibly
fibromatosis
The term fibromatosis refers to a group of soft tissue tumors which have certain characteristics in common, including absence of cytologic and clinical malignant features, a histology consistent with proliferation of well-differentiated fibroblast ...
) in his left hip, although rumors persisted that his lameness was due to mistreatment by his employer.
At the age of seventeen, thanks to a scholarship from the "Diputación de Santander", he returned to Madrid and enrolled at the
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acad ...
, where he studied with
Vicente Palmaroli
Vicente Palmaroli González (5 September 1834 – 25 January 1896) was a Spanish portrait and genre painter.
Biography
He was born in Zarzalejo, the son of Gaetano Palmaroli, an Italian painter and lithographer, who was his first teac ...
and
Carlos de Haes
Carlos Sebastián Pedro Hubert de Haes (January 25, 1829 – June 17, 1898) was a Spanish painter from Belgium.Caso, E. F., ''Les Orientalistes de l'école Espagnole,''
ACR edition, 1997, p. 128 He was noted for the Realism in his landscapes, a ...
, among others.
He frequently painted en
plein aire
''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors.
This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...
around the city; working in a state of feverish creativity.
Constant bouts of ill-health related to his tumor led to an emotional instability that was exploited by the businessman and art dealer, , who would buy his works cheap and sell them to the nobility at inflated prices. Sainz was apparently aware of this, but had no other means of support.
In 1881, he won an award at the
National Exhibition of Fine Arts, but his physical and psychological state forced his friends to take him back to Matamorosa, where his health was restored and he entered his most productive period.
He returned to Madrid in 1885 where, at first, he lived with his sister Luisa then went to the join the creative community in
Malasaña
Malasaña is an area in the centre of Madrid, Spain. It does not correspond to any administrative division, but it is often conflated with Universidad, the wider administrative neighborhood on which Malasaña is located. The webpage providin ...
. During this period, he was subject to constant relapses and recuperations; tended to by his friends.
Nevertheless, he was able to participate in several exhibitions and received good notices from the critics.
His constant suffering made him delusional and he became increasingly unable to care for himself. For two years, he stayed with his friend, the painter .
In 1890, Pelayo and another friend found it necessary to take him to a psychiatric sanatorium operated by Dr.
José María Esquerdo in
Carabanchel
Carabanchel is a district of Madrid, Spain. It lies on the southern (right) bank of the Manzanares, spanning southward down to the M-40 ring road. The district is made up of the neighbourhoods of Abrantes, Comillas, Opañel, Puerta Bonita, San ...
.
The Diputación Provincial awarded him a pension that enabled him to defray the costs of his long stay there. That same year, he won another award at the National Exhibition.
He died in
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 ...
, from an infection of his left leg, aged 44, and was interred at the local cemetery. In 1922, his remains were moved to
Reinosa
Reinosa is a municipality in Cantabria, Spain. , it has 10,307 inhabitants. The municipality, one of the smallest by land area in Cantabria, is notable for being one of the nearest towns to the headwaters of the Ebro River. It is surrounded by th ...
and his grave was adorned with a sculpture by
Victorio Macho.
Streets have been named for him in
Santander
Santander may refer to:
Places
* Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain
* Santander Department, a department of Colombia
* Santander State, former state of Colombia
* Santander de Quilichao, a m ...
and
Torrelavega
Torrelavega ( Cantabrian: ''Torlavega'') is a municipality and important industrial and commercial hub in the single province Autonomous Community of Cantabria, northern Spain.
It is situated roughly 8 kilometres from the Cantabrian Coast and 27.5 ...
.
Selected paintings
Sainz-Desk.jpg, Woman at a
Writing Desk
File:Sainz-Moon.jpg, Double Moon
File:Paseo de Recoletos - Casimiro Sainz.jpeg, Paseo de Recoletos
Paseo de Recoletos is a wide boulevard in central Madrid leading from Plaza de Cibeles to Plaza de Colón.
From west to east it consists of:
* Two southward lanes
* The pedestrian walk
* A southward bus lane
* Three southward lanes
* Three north ...
Sainz-Washerwomen.jpg, Washerwomen on the Manzanares
Sainz-Fireplace.jpg, By the Fireplace
References
Further reading
* Salvador Carretero Rebés, Diego Bedia Casanueva; ''Casimiro Sainz y Saiz, 1853-1898'' (exhibition catalog) Museo de Bellas Artes de Santander, 1998
External links
"La inconclusa obra artistica de Casimiro Sainz Saiz (1853-1898)"by Salvador Carretero Rebés @ Cuadernos de Campoo.
Arcadja Auctions: More works by Sainz.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sainz, Casimiro
1853 births
1898 deaths
19th-century Spanish painters
Spanish male painters
Spanish landscape painters
Spanish portrait painters
Deaths from sepsis
People from Campoo
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando alumni
19th-century Spanish male artists