Benet Mercadé i Fàbrega, in Spanish: Benito Mercadé y Fábregas (1821 – 10 December 1897) was a Catalan painter of portraits and historical scenes.

Biography

Mercadé was born in La Bisbal d'Empordà. His father was a painter and gilder. In 1838, he moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, where he worked as a shoemaker's assistant while beginning his studies at the Escola de la Llotja, doing some occasional ornamental painting and making daguerrotypes.Brief biography
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Museo del Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...

website. He later attended the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, where he studied with Carlos Luis de Ribera.Santiago Alcolea, ''Pinturas de la Universidad de Barcelona'', Edicions Universitat Barcelona, (1980)

/ref> His first major exhibition came in 1852 and, a year later, he settled in Madrid. In 1858, he participated in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts (Spain), National Exhibition of Fine Arts, presenting two major works, one on

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

and one on Columbus, the latter of which gained an "honorable mention".David Garcia López, ''Los depósitos del Museo del Prado en el antiguo Museo Provincial de Girona, actual Museo d'Art'', Annals de l'Institut d'Estudis Gironins #42 (200

/ref> He would continue to participate in the National Exhibitions until 1876. He obtained the Grand Prize at an exposition in Paris in 1866 with the "Traslación de San Francisco de Asís" (The Passing of Saint Francis of Assisi). From 1863 to 1869, he lived in Rome where he frequented the Antico Caffè Greco, meeting with other painters and writers from Spain such as

Dióscoro Puebla Dióscoro Teófilo Puebla Tolín (25 February 1831 – 24 October 1901) was a Spanish painter in the Academic art, Eclectic style who specialized in portraits, Genre art, genre and history painting. Biography Puebla was born in Melgar de Fer ...

José Casado del Alisal José María Casado del Alisal (1830/32 – 8 October 1886)Brief bio ...

, Eduardo Rosales, Vicente Palmaroli, Marià Fortuny and Alejo Vera. He returned to Barcelona because of his increasingly poor eyesight, and eventually had to stop painting, but still obtained a full professorship at the Escola in 1882. He was initially influenced by the

Nazarene movement The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of c ...

, but later switched to Realism, focusing on religious and historic themes. He died in

, aged 76. A street in Barcelona is named after him.

Selected paintings

File:Benet Mercadé - Church of Cervara (Papal States) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Wake'' (1864) File:Santa Teresa de Jesús, de Benito Mercadé (Museo del Prado)FXD.jpg, '' Saint Teresa of Jesus'' (1868) File:Christopher Columbus at the gates of the monastery of Santa Maria de la Rabida with his son DiegoFXD.jpg, ''Columbus at La Rábida Friary'' (1858) File:Traslación de San Francisco de Asís, de Benet Mercadé.jpg, ''The Passing of Saint

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone ( 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italians, Italian Mysticism, mystic, poet and Friar, Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Chris ...

'' (1866) (Barcelona) Benet Mercadé - Portrait of Senyora Anita with Red Dress - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.jpg, ''Portrait of Senyora Anita with Red Dress'' (1872)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercade, Benet 1821 births 1897 deaths Spanish history painters Painters from Barcelona 19th-century Catalan painters Spanish male painters Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando alumni 19th-century Spanish male artists

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links