José Moreno Carbonero (Spanish: o'se mo'reno karbo'nero 24 March 1858 – 15 April 1942) was a Spanish painter and decorator. A prominent member of the

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

School of Painting, he is considered one of the last great history painters of the 19th century. He was a celebrated

portrait painter Portrait painting is a Hierarchy of genres, genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commissio ...

who enjoyed the patronage of Madrid's high society. He also created

genre scenes Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

and some

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

veduta A ''veduta'' (; : ''vedute'') is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often, old master print, print of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of ''vedute'' are referred to as ''vedutisti''. Origins This genre of land ...

s and

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s.C. González Navarro, ''José Moreno Carbonero''
in: 'El siglo XIX en el Prado, 2007', pp.480-481 Moreno Carbonero was widely recognized, both nationally and internationally, during his lifetime. He received awards, among others, at the of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1889, the Budapest International Exhibition in 1890, the Universal Exhibition of Berlin in 1891 and the only medal at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in 1893. His work is represented at some of the most influential museums in the world, with El Prado Museum, in Madrid, holding an important collection. Among his masterworks are ''The Entry of Roger de Flor in Constantinople'' (1888), ''The Prince don Carlos de Viana'' (1881), ''The Conversion of the Duke of Gandía'' (1884) and ''The Founding of Buenos Aires'' (1910–1924).

Early life and education

Moreno Carbonero was born in the Perchel quarter of

, the son of a carpenter. His exact birthdate has been object of debate, frequently cited as March 1860, but the original birth certificate is conserved and states he was born on 24 March 1858. A precocious artist, in 1868 he joined the school of fine arts in his home town and also took classes in the studio of Bernardo Ferrándiz. He sold his first painting at age fifteen for 2000 pesetas (an important sum at the time) and came to be known as "el niño Moreno" (the Moreno child) because of his early mastery of

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

. Bernardo Ferrándiz was the leading Málaga artist of the moment and introduced his young student to history painting. Ferrándiz instilled in him his own revolutionary views which he expressed in his historical works by proclaiming a commitment to independence, freedom and nonconformity.Rodrigo Gutiérrez Viñuales, Elisa Radovanovic, ''Moreno Carbonero, pintor de la Historia fundacional de Buenos Aires''
in: Boletín de Arte, Universidad de Málaga, 1995, Nº 16, pp. 207-224 Moreno Carbonero obtained the gold medal in the Exhibition of the Lyceum of Málaga in 1872, being only fourteen.

Career

In 1873 Moreno Carbonero visited

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, where he began to make African-themed paintings, influenced by Mariano Fortuny. In 1875 he traveled to Paris thanks to a scholarship granted by the local government of Málaga. In Paris he joined the workshop of the painter

Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Léon Gérôme (; 11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academic painting, academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living art ...

, known for his Academic and Orientalist works. He also got to know the famous art dealer Adolphe Goupil. Goupil introduced him to the market of small genre paintings referred to in French as ''tableautins''. In this area he achieved his first successes and he developed a virtuoso style comparable to that of Fortuny.S. B. I, ''Moreno Carbonero, José''
at the Prado website In 1881 Moreno Carbonero went to study in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

as a boarder on a stipend. After he returned to Spain, he won gold medals at the national exhibitions in 1881 with his painting ''The prince don Carlos de Viana'' and in 1884 with ''The Conversion of the Duke of Gandía'', which he had painted during his stay in Rome. As his fame grew, he received commissions from various official institutions. In 1888 the Spanish Senate commissioned from him the painting ''The Entry of Roger de Flor in Constantinople'', which is considered one of the most spectacular artworks within the genre of

historical painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bi ...

and still decorate the walls of the Conference Hall in the Senate. For this large-scale painting, that depicts the Italian

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

Roger de Flor Roger de Flor (c. 1267 – 30 April 1305), also known as Ruggero/Ruggiero da Fiore or Rutger von Blum or Ruggero Flores, was an Italian military adventurer and condottiere active in Aragonese Sicily, Italy, and the Byzantine Empire. He was ...

and his troops of Almogavar warriors entering the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

to relieve the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

from the Turkish, Moreno Carbonero extensively researched in

about Byzantine architecture, clothes and decoration, and he used dozens of models to recreate the complete atmosphere in the Málaga bullfighting arena. Smaller paintings derived from this work, depicting individual Almogavar warriors, are known to exist. In 1910, the Argentine Government asked him to execute a canvas with the theme of the founding of Buenos Aires to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the revolution of Argentina. King

Alfonso XIII of Spain Alfonso XIII ( Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also ...

gave this work as a gift to the city of Buenos Aires. The king visited the studio of Moreno Carbonero during the creation of the work and kept in the bedroom of the

Royal Palace of Madrid The Royal Palace of Madrid () is the official residence of the Spanish royal family at the city of Madrid, although now used only for state ceremonies. The palace has of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the largest royal palace in Eu ...

a design for the portrait of

Juan de Garay Juan de Garay (1528–1583) was a Spanish conquistador. Garay's birthplace is disputed. Some say it was in the city of Junta de Villalba de Losa in Castile, while others argue he was born in the area of Orduña (Basque Country). There's ...

, the founder of Buenos Aires, who was depicted in the canvas. Moreno Carbonero was also awarded in 1888 the highest award in the Vatican Exposition and participated in the International Exhibitions in Munich and Vienna. He obtained a second medal at the of Paris in 1889, a great gold medal at the Budapest International Exhibition in 1890, an honorary diploma at the Universal Exhibition of Berlin in 1891 and the only medal at the

of Chicago in 1893. From 1892 he taught as professor of live drawing at 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 centre of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal aca ...

and he was also an Academician of the same organisation. In 1924 he was made ''Hijo Predilecto''. After his death in Madrid on 15 April 1942, his body was transferred to Málaga, where he is buried in the San Miguel cemetery. In 1958 a monument created by

Mariano Benlliure Mariano Benlliure y Gil (8 September 18629 November 1947) was a Spanish sculptor and medallist, who executed many public monuments and religious sculptures in Spain, working in a heroic realist style. Life and works He was born in the Lower S ...

was erected in the Puerta Oscura gardens to honour the artist.

Style and technique

José Moreno Carbonero was principally a

history painter History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek mythology, Greek and Roman my ...

. He was further a painter of portraits,

, some landscapes,

s and still lifes. His work was eclectic in style and was mainly influenced by the work of Fortuny. In his portraits he used a realistic style.José Moreno Carbonero, ''Cortejo ante la verja''
at the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga As a history painter Moreno Carbonero excelled through his clear drawing and clean brushstrokes. In his history paintings he was influenced by the genre painting on small format that he practised in his early years. He showed a preference for leaving aside the grand events of history in favour of depicting the feelings and reactions of participants in events from the past. He cared a lot about the historical accuracy of his history paintings. This explains why he asked that the painting ''The founding of Buenos Aires'' be returned to him after it was delivered to the local government in Buenos Aires in 1909. He had read more about the history of the city after he had first completed the work and wanted to make substantial changes to it so it would be more historically accurate. He returned the reworked painting to the city in 1924. As a portrait painter, Moreno Carbonero created elegant portraits of personnages from the high society of Madrid. These portraits were characterised by their sophisticated and sumptuous treatment of the sitters. Moreno Carbonero devoted himself in the first decades of his career to genre painting. His genre paintings took as their subject the daily life of people or scenes from the Spanish Golden Age of literature, and especially the story of Don Quixote. The collection of the Museo de Bellas Artes of Málaga holds more than 30 works of José Moreno Carbonero.Museo de Bellas Artes de Málaga

Gallery

File:Conversión del duque de Gandía, Museo del Prado.jpg, ''The Conversion of the

Duke of Gandía Duke of Gandía (, ) is a title of Spanish nobility that was first created in 1399 by Martin of Aragon and granted to Alfonso of Aragon and Foix. It has its origin in the Manorialism, lordship of Gandía created in 1323 by James II of Aragon. Lat ...

'' File:José Moreno Carbonero - The founding of Buenos Aires (1924).jpg, ''The Founding of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

'' File:Gladiadores después del combate, por José Moreno Carbonero.jpg, ''

Gladiator A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their ...

s after the Combat'' File:Water Carriers in the Outskirts of Alcalá de Guadaíra.jpg, ''Water Carriers in the Outskirts of Alcalá de Guadaíra'' File:Álvaro Drake, marqués de Villablanca, por José Moreno Carbonero.jpg, ''Álvaro Drake, Marquis of Villablanca'' File:José Moreno Carbonero - Ca d'Oro.jpg, ''Ca d'Oro'' File:El vaso de agua, de José Moreno Carbonero (Museo del Prado).jpg, ''A Glass of Water''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moreno Carbonero, Jose 1858 births 1942 deaths 19th-century Spanish painters 19th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters 20th-century Spanish painters 20th-century Spanish male artists Spanish Orientalist painters People from Málaga Spanish portrait painters Spanish genre painters Members of learned societies of Spain Burials at the San Miguel Cemetery, Málaga