Cecilio Plá y Gallardo (22 November 1860 – 4 August 1934) was a Spanish painter and illustrator.

Biography

Cecilio Plá was born in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

. As a child, he studied music at the , in accordance with the wishes of his father, who was the bandleader and arranger for the Teatro Principal. Later, he followed his own desires to be an artist and continued his studies at the Instituto San Pablo and the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia (Spanish for ''Saint Charles Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Valencia'') has been a Spanish Art school in Valencia since 1768. History The institution is deemed to be the follow-on instit ...

. After winning a Silver Medal at the Exposición de Valencia in 1879, he moved to Madrid with a friend, where he entered 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 ...

, becoming a student of Emilio Sala.Brief biography
@ the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

. The following year, after travelling through Portugal, France and Italy, he settled in Rome. From there, he sent home numerous works, mostly in the

Costumbrismo ''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 ...

genre, which showed the influence of

Marià Fortuny Marià Josep Maria Bernat Fortuny i Marsal (; es, Mariano José María Bernardo Fortuny y Marsal; June 11, 1838 – November 21, 1874), known more simply as Marià Fortuny or Mariano Fortuny, was the leading Spanish painter of his day, with an ...

. Some were shown at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, winning medals in 1884 and 1887 for paintings on Italian subjects. He received many more medals over the next two decades, including a Medal of Honor at the

Exposition Universelle (1900) The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate developmen ...

. From 1893 to 1910, he drew illustrations for several periodicals, including ''

La Ilustración Española y Americana ''La Ilustración Española y Americana'' was a weekly Spanish magazine that was published from 1869 to 1921 on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 30th of every month. It was also published biweekly. History The magazine was a continuation of ''El Museo Un ...

'', and ''

Blanco y Negro Blanco y Negro Records (Spanish: "White and Black"), a subsidiary of WEA Records Ltd., was established in 1983 by Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records and Mike Alway of él Records. Michel Duval of Les Disques du Crépuscule was also involved ...

''. In 1910, he began his career as a teacher at the Academy of San Fernando, succeeding Sala in the Chair of "Color Aesthetics and Painting Procedures",Biography
@ MCN Biografías. which he held until his retirement in 1931. He was named an Academician in 1924. His dedication to teaching drastically reduced his artistic output.

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

was, perhaps, his best-known student. He also published a "Pictorial Art Primer". In addition to his paintings and drawings, he worked on many public projects, completing the work begun by Sala at the

Casino de Madrid The Casino de Madrid (Spanish: ''Casino de Madrid'') is currently located in Madrid, Spain on number 15 Calle de Alcalá. It was born as a social club in 1836, outside of politics and with the intention of being a place where its members could ...

and providing decorations for the

Círculo de Bellas Artes The Círculo de Bellas Artes is a private, non-profit, cultural organization that was founded in 1880. Its building, located in Madrid, Spain, was declared ''Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1981. The CBA is a major multidisciplinary centre with one ...

. 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 ...

, aged 73.

Selected paintings

File:Nude Child-Plá.jpg, Nude Child File:Cecilio Pla The Verbena.jpg,

Verbena ''Verbena'' (), also known as vervain or verveine, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the Americas a ...

File:Hiding-Plá.jpg, Hiding File:Honeymoon-Plá.jpg, Honeymoon File:Dama en la playa (Cecilio Plá).jpg, Lady on the Beach File:La mosca (Cecilio Plá, 1897).jpg, The Fly

References

External links

* Documentary movie, ''Cecilio Plá'' (1980), directed by

César Fernández Ardavín César Fernández Ardavín (22 July 1923 – 7 September 2012) was a Spanish film director and screenwriter. He directed more than 40 films between 1952 and 1979. His 1959 film ''El Lazarillo de Tormes'' won the Golden Bear at the 10th Berlin ...

, produced by Aro Film

More works by Plá
@ The Atheneum. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pla, Cecilio 1860 births 1934 deaths Artists from Valencia 19th-century Spanish painters Spanish male painters 20th-century Spanish painters 20th-century Spanish male artists Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando alumni 19th-century Spanish male artists

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links