Eugenio Lucas Velázquez (9 February 1817 – 11 September 1870) was a Spanish painter in the Romantic style, known for

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 ...

and

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 ...

scenes which often featured fantastic elements. Nineteenth-century sources refer to him as Eugenio Lucas Padilla, which has caused some confusion,Brief biography
@ the Museo del Prado. although it seems reasonable to assume that Velázquez was an adopted name. Few of his paintings are signed, causing a problem with attribution.

Biography

He was born to a middle-class family 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 ...

and was originally a

cabinet-maker A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves and/or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (s ...

. It is difficult to reconstruct his artistic studies. In the catalog accompanying his works at the

Exposition Universelle (1855) The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Élysées in Paris from 15 May to 15 November 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des B ...

, he claims to have attended 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 ...

and studied with

José de Madrazo José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

, even though he had abandoned the

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...

taught there. It is known that he displayed four works at the Academia in 1841 and spent long hours copying the paintings at 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 ...

; especially those of

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...

and

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

. He joined the National Militia in 1843 and was a member until the late 1850s. The following year, he married Martina Hernández Muñoz. In 1848, apparently suffering from financial difficulties, they went to live with her aunt, Vicenta. Within a year, thanks to some successful exhibitions, he had acquired commissions that enabled them to establish their own home. In 1850, he was one of the artists commissioned to provide decorations for the ceiling of the new

Teatro Real The Teatro Real (Royal Theatre) is an opera house in Madrid, Spain. Located at the Plaza de Oriente, opposite the Royal Palace of Madrid, Royal Palace, and known colloquially as ''El Real'', it is considered the top institution of the performing a ...

(since painted over or removed). Queen Isabel II attended the opening, named him an honorary

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

, and made him a Knight in the

Order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III ( es, Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, originally es, Real y Muy Distinguida Orden de Carlos III) was establ ...

. After that, most of his clients came from the upper nobility; most notably, the Marqués de Salamanca, who later had one of Goya's ''

Black Paintings The ''Black Paintings'' (Spanish: ''Pinturas negras'') is the name given to a group of 14 paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819 and 1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his ...

'' removed and placed in his palace. In 1852, he took a trip to Paris, possibly accompanied by his mistress, Francisca Villaamil, the sister of

Jenaro Pérez Villaamil Jenaro Pérez de Villaamil y d'Huguet (3 February 1807 – 5 June 1854) was a Spanish painter in the Romantic style who specialized in landscapes with figures and architectural scenes. He often inflated the scale of the buildings relative t ...

. In Paris he came under the influence of

Delacroix Delacroix is a French surname that derives from ''de la Croix'' ("of the Cross"). It may refer to: People * Caroline Delacroix (1883–1945), French-Romanian mistress of Leopold II of Belgium * Charles-François Delacroix (1741–1805), ...

. The following year, he and his wife were separated. He and Francisca had four children, including the artist, Eugenio Lucas Villaamil. During the 1860s, he made several more trips to Paris, with visits to Switzerland and Italy. On one trip to Paris, it is said that he went to the

Louvre 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 ...

and discovered that a painting attributed to Diego Velázquez was actually one of his. True or not, this could serve to explain his use of the name "Velázquez". In his later years, he was criticized as being a mere copier of Goya. He died on 11 September 1870 in Madrid.

Selected paintings

File:El fusilamiento 1869.jpg, The Execution File:Condenados por la inquisicion 1860.jpg, Condemned by
the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

File:Cogida en una capea de pueblo 1855.jpg, Goring at an
Amateur Bullfight File:Revolucion 1862.jpg, Revolution File:Mass (The Elevation), Eugenio Lucas Velázquez.jpg, Mass (The Elevation)

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Lucas.Drawings by Lucas
@ the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica
Biography under the name "Eugenio Lucas y Padilla"
@ MCN Biografías.
Scholarly articles
in English about Eugenio Lucas Velázquez both in web an
PDF
@ th
Spanish Old Masters Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas Velazquez, Eugenio 1817 births 1870 deaths 19th-century Spanish painters 19th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters Artists from Madrid Orientalist painters Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando alumni Spanish genre painters Spanish romantic painters

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links