Ramón Frade de León (March 12, 1875 – November 7, 1954) was a Puerto Rican

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

and architect. His realist style of painting captured the life of the typical Puerto Rican in the twentieth century.

Early years

Frade (birth name: Ramón Frade de León ) was born in the town of

Cayey, Puerto Rico Cayey (), officially Cayey de Muesas, is a mountain Cayey barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in central Puerto Rico located on the Sierra de Cayey within the Cordillera Central (Puerto Rico), Central Mountain rang ...

on May 12, 1875. His father died when he was just a child and his mother gave him up for adoption. He was adopted by Nemesio Laforja and his wife who were Spanish nationals. The Laforja family moved back to Spain and in 1885, immigrated and settled down in

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

the capital of the Dominican Republic. During his youth he traveled to Europe and studied art in Italy. He was also a pupil of the Dominican artist

Luis Desangles Luis Desangles Lubiles (8 February 1861 – 13 April 1940) was a Dominican painter, sculptor, and educator born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Instructor to many of the great native artists of the era, Desangles is remembered as one of t ...

. The subjects of his first paintings were the Roman ruins in Italy. From (1896 to 1902), Frade traveled to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

and

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

where he painted scenes of the main colonial cities.

Visual artist

Frade painted portrayals of the life of the Puerto Rican campesinos (country people). What is considered as his masterwork, "El Pan Nuestro de Cada Día" (Our Daily Bread) (1905), represents a "jíbaro" farmer carrying plantains. In his painting he shows what is an old barefooted man who is poor but proud, serious, dignified, clean. This jíbaro is supposed to represent Puerto Rico at the beginning of the century. Other works by Frade include: "La Planchadora" (The Ironing Lady) (1948), "El Niño Campesino" (the country child), Ensenada, "La Poza", "Reverie", and "La Inmaculada" (The Immaculate) and many others.A Guide to the Island of Boriquén, Federal Writers Project, 1940
/ref>

Architect

In 1907, Frade returned to his hometown Cayey and, unable to make a living from his paintings, decided to make use of his land-surveyor's degree which he had earned from the

University of Sevilla The University of Seville (''Universidad de Sevilla'') is a university in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. Founded under the name of ''Colegio Santa María de Jesús'' in 1505, in 2022 it has a student body of 57,214,U-Ranking Universidades español ...

through a mail correspondence course. During the early part of the 20th century there was a great demand for additional housing, infrastructures and tobacco warehouses in the towns of

Caguas Caguas (, ) is a city and municipality in central eastern Puerto Rico. Located in the eponymous Caguas Valley between the Sierra de Cayey and Sierra de Luquillo of the Central Mountain Range, it is bordered by San Juan and Trujillo Alto to ...

, Comerío and Cayey. Inspired by the possibilities which the construction sector represented, Frade in 1909, decided to take a correspondence course in architecture in the American School of Correspondence in

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 ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. He earned his diploma on July 26, 1913, however he began to let it be known that he was an architect as early as 1912. Among Frade's works as an architect were the new design of Cayey's Municipal Cemetery, a plaza dedicated to

Eugenio María de Hostos Eugenio María de Hostos y de Bonilla (January 11, 1839 – August 11, 1903), known as ("The Great Citizen of the Americas"), was a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican educator, philosopher, intellectual, lawyer, sociologist, novelist, and Puerto Rican ...

, the buildings of two tobacco companies and various buildings in the commercial section of the town.

Legacy

On November 7, 1954, Ramón Frade died in his hometown at the age of 79 years. His widow donated his art works to the Cayey campus of the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

. Cayey has honored his memory by naming a school and a public plaza after him. The

Río Piedras Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Flo ...

campus of the University of Puerto Rico has a gallery with an exhibit of Frade's art works.Galeria Universitaria

Notes

References