Eugenio Landesio (1810–1879) was an Italian painter and a pupil of the Hungarian landscape painter

Károly Markó the Elder Károly Markó, also known as Carlo Marco (25 September 1791,
@ the Magyar Életrajzi Lexikonban. Academy of San Carlos, where he exercised an influence on later exponents of Mexican landscape painting such as José María Velasco.

Early years

Eugenio Landesio was born in 1810 in Altessano, a village near

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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 ...

. Born into a family of silversmiths, he lived in

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as a child. He became so fond of drawing at an early age that his father resigned himself to the fact that he would be a painter. Landesio began to study landscape painting under the French painter Amédée Bourgeois and went on to become a pupil of the Hungarian landscape painter Károly Markó the Elder.

Arrival in Mexico

Like his teacher, Landesio was a Romantic landscape painter, with a tendency to emphasize the sweetness and mellowness of his scenes. His work became known in Mexico when several of his paintings were acquired by the Academy of San Carlos. In January 1855, at the invitation of the Catalan painter Pelegrín Clavé, who was director of the figure painting section of the Academy, he went to Mexico to give classes in landscape, perspective, and the principles of ornamentation. Landesio wrote three books on landscape painting that served as textbooks for the students of the Academy of San Carlos: ''Los cimientos del artista dibujante y pintor. Compendio de perspectivas lineal y aérea, sombras, espejos y refracción, con las nociones necesarias de geometría'' (''The Foundations of the Draftsman Artist and Painter: A compendium of lineal and aerial perspectives, shadows, mirrors, and refraction, with the necessary notions of geography'', 1866); ''La pintura general o de paisaje y la perspectiva en la Academia Nacional de San Carlos'' (''General or Landscape Painting and Perspective in the Academy of San Carlos'', 1867); and ''Escursión a la caverna de Cacahuamilpa y ascensión al cráter del Popocatepetl'' (''Excursion to the Cacahuamilpa Cavern and Ascent to the Crater of Popocatépetl'', 1868). In 1873, during the administration of President

Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada y Corral (; 24 April 1823 – 21 April 1889) was Mexican liberal politician and jurist who served as the 27th president of Mexico from 1872 to 1876. A successor to Benito Juárez, who died in office in July 1872, Le ...

, the teachers at the Academy were required to swear adherence to the

Reform Laws The Reform War, or War of Reform ( es, Guerra de Reforma), also known as the Three Years' War ( es, Guerra de los Tres Años), was a civil war in Mexico lasting from January 11, 1858 to January 11, 1861, fought between liberals and conservativ ...

. Eugenio Landesio refused and had to resign his position. He wanted to be succeeded by José María Velasco, but

Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Basilio (; 13 November 1834 – 13 February 1893) was a Mexican radical liberal writer, journalist, teacher and politician. He wrote ''Clemencia'' (1869), which is often considered to be the first modern Mexican novel. ...

imposed his own candidate, Salvador Murillo, provoking a public dispute between the painter and the novelist.

Influence

Landesio exercised a positive influence in his field, comparable to that of the Catalan friends who had recommended him in their own fields of figure painting and sculpture. It can be claimed that the practice of landscape painting as a regular institutionalized activity in Mexico began with Landesio. He had numerous outstanding disciples, including José Jiménez (1830–1859), Gregorio Dumaine (1843–1889), Luis Coto (1830–1891), Salvador Murillo (1840-?), who took over Landesio’s teaching position from 1873 to 1875, Javier Álvarez, and one exceptional one, who was to consolidate the discipline in Mexico and take over as the foremost teacher of the following generation: José María Velasco (1840–1912). Landesio was an academic painter to the manner born, of great didactic and analytical talent. In line with academic norms, his teaching method at San Carlos involved the decomposition of landscape into its constituent elements, followed by the gradual detailed study of these elements and their subsequent restructuring, to esthetic ends, in the definitive composition. He combined work in the studio with painting from nature in the open air. Landesio distinguished two large parts or integral sub-totalities of landscape: “localities” and “episodes.” The former include the different kinds of landscape surroundings and environments (skies, foliage, lands, water, buildings), while the latter include the different figurative groups that confer on a given place a sense of scale, differentiating topical features, narrative interest, or historical density (history, popular, military, or family scenes, portraits, animals).

Work

Amongst his most important works are ''El Valle de México desde el cerro del Tenayo. The Valley of Mexico from the Hill of Tenayo'' (1870) part of the Museo Nacional de Arte's Collection and ''Patio de la Hacienda de Regla. Patio of the Hacienda de Regla'' (1857).

Galería

File:LANDESIO(1868) - T2 - Caverna de Cacahuamilpa.jpg, Page 20 of ''Excursión a la Caverna de Cacahuamilpa y ascensión al Cráter del Popocatépetl.'' File:LANDESIO(1868) - T3 - Popocatepetl, su crater.jpg, Page 48 of ''Excursión a la Caverna de Cacahuamilpa y ascensión al Cráter del Popocatépetl.'' File:LANDESIO(1868) - T4 - El Popocatepetl.jpg, Page 50 of ''Excursión a la Caverna de Cacahuamilpa y ascensión al Cráter del Popocatépetl.'' File:Landesio La hacienda de Colon.jpg, ''La hacienda de Colón'' (The hacienda of Columbus) (1857 - 1858) File:Eugenio Landesio - The Antesacristy of the Franciscan Convent - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Antesacristía del convento de San Francisco'' (Anteacristy of the convent of San Francisco) (1855) File:Eugenio Landesio - The Valley of Mexico Seen from the Tenayo Hill - Google Art Project.jpg, ''El Valle de México desde el cerro de Tenayo'' (The Valley of Mexico from the hill of Tenay) (1870) File:SaintJohnLandesio.JPG, ''San Juan en la Isla de Patmos'' (San Juan in the island of Patmos) File:Eugenio Landesio Patio de la Hacienda de Regla.jpg, '' Patio de la Hacienda de Regla'' (Courtyard of the Hacienda de Regla) (1857) Picture of the collection of

Museo Soumaya The Museo Soumaya is a private museum in Mexico City and a non-profit cultural institution with two museum buildings in Mexico City — Plaza Carso and Plaza Loreto. It has over 66,000 works from 30 centuries of art including sculptures from Pre- ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landesio, Eugenio 1810 births 1879 deaths 19th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian male artists Italian male painters