Carlos Federico Sáez (14 November 1878, Mercedes – 4 January 1901,

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

) was an artist from

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

Biography

He was born into a wealthy family in the city of Mercedes in western Uruguay. By the age of 13 he was producing outstanding paintings and drawings. In 1891 he moved to

to study with the painter Juan Franzi. The well-known painter

Juan Manuel Blanes Juan Manuel Blanes (June 8, 1830 – April 15, 1901) was a Uruguayan painter of the Realism (art), Realist school. Life and work Blanes was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1830. He was raised by his mother, with whom he relocated to the countrys ...

recommended that Sáez go to study in Italy, which was a fairly common practice for wealthy young artists in

at that time. The national government provided him with an art scholarship at just 14 years of age. He spent the next seven years in Rome. He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in 1893, but was interested in new artistic movements such as the

Macchiaioli The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order ...

and

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

. In 1896 he set up his own atelier in the Via Margutta, offering a number of shows. In 1900 he fell ill and returned to

where he died shortly after at the age of 22.

Works

Sáez painted mainly portraits. His work is characterized by loose brush strokes that still convey a realistic precision. While he was in Italy he painted a number of portraits where the canvas is left visible – a technique used in

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...

, and which was not seen elsewhere until 1910.Brief biography
@ Sala de Arte In his short career he produced more than 70 oil paintings and 100 drawings. He is considered one of the principal Uruguayan artists and the first to produce truly modern art. His works can be found in Uruguay in the National Museum of Visual Arts and the Juan Manuel Blanes Museum both in

, the Pinacoteca Eusebio Giménez Gallery in his home town of Mercedes, and in the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires known as the

MALBA The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (, mostly known for its acronym MALBA) is an art museum located on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue, in the Palermo, Buenos Aires, Palermo section of Buenos Aires. History Created by Argentina, Argentine busin ...

References

External links

Sala Carlos Federico Sáez
– Public Works Ministry of Uruguay (MTOP) {{DEFAULTSORT:Saez, Carlos Federico 1878 births 1901 deaths People from Mercedes, Uruguay Uruguayan portrait painters 20th-century Uruguayan painters Uruguayan male artists Uruguayan male painters 20th-century Uruguayan male artists