Mercedes Santamarina Gastañaga (18 June 1896 – 23 May 1972) was an Argentine art collector and

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

. Interested in art from an early age, Santamarina amassed a large collection of pieces over the course of her life. In her last few years she donated much of her collection to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires and the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Tandil in Tandil.

Biography

Mercedes Santamarina was born on 18 June 1896 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

into an aristocratic family of Spanish origins. Her parents were Ramón Santamarina II and María Gaztañaga and she was the sixth of ten children. Santamarina was a granddaughter of the businessman Ramon Santamarina, who is considered the family's founder. The Santamarina family owned ''La Pola'', a large ''

estancia An estancia is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias in the southern South American grasslands, the ''pampas'', have historically been estates used to raise livestock, such as cattle or sheep. In Pu ...

'' (private plot of land) in

Tandil Tandil is the main city of the homonymous Partidos of Buenos Aires, partido (department), located in Argentina, in the southeast of Buenos Aires Province, just north-northwest of Tandilia hills. The city was founded in 1823 and its name originate ...

in the

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

. Since Santamarina's father's business was also based in Tandil, she spent much of her childhood there. Upon her father's death in 1909, Santamarina inherited ''La Pola''. As an adult she mostly lived in Buenos Aires though typically spent the summers in Tandil. Santamarina developed an interest in art already as a child and devoted her life to collecting artwork. She acquired much of her collection in

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 ...

, a city she frequently travelled to and sometimes resided in. She made her first trip to Paris before the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Santamarina's collection of paintings contained several important and historically significant works, mainly 19th-century French paintings by artists such as

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast ...

Jean-Louis Forain Jean-Louis Forain (23 October 1852 – 11 July 1931) was a French Impressionist painter and printmaker, working in media including oils, watercolour, pastel, etching and lithograph. Compared to many of his Impressionist colleagues, he was mo ...

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the ...

and

Félix Ziem Félix Ziem (26 February 1821 – 10 November 1911) was a French painter in the style of the Barbizon School, who also produced some Orientalist works. Biography He was born Félix-Francois Georges Philibert Ziem in Beaune in the Côte-d' ...

. A large amount of artwork and fine items were auctioned off by Santamarina in 1946. Since this was the same year her mother died, many of the pieces sold had likely been her mother's property. Santamarina died in Buenos Aires on 23 May 1972, aged 75.

Legacy

Santamarina died unmarried and childless. In her will, she granted ''La Pola'' to her nephew Jorge de Alvear Santamarina. Towards the end of her life, Santamarina donated large parts of her still large collection of paintings, sculptures and furniture. In 1970, she donated much of her collection of paintings to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires and in 1971 she donated almost a hundred different pieces to the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Tandil in Tandil. The collection in Tandil is considered an important part of the city's cultural legacy. Her collection in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes occupies rooms 18 and 19 of the museum and was donated with the only stipulation that the collection had to be displayed together. The collection in Tandil was originally also intended to occupy two rooms but the final installation was instead put up in a single room in 1973. A large part of the collection in Buenos Aires was stolen in 1980 and a further theft (though this time of only two prints) also occurred in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santamarina, Mercedes 1896 births 1972 deaths Argentine people of Spanish descent Argentine art collectors