Serafín Xoaquín Avendaño Martínez (12 October 1838 – 23 August 1916) was a Galician landscape and

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

painter who spent many years living in Italy.

Biography

Serafín Avendaño was born in

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

. His father was a professor. When he was still very young, the family moved to Madrid, where he received his first art lessons 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 ...

from

Antonio María Esquivel Antonio María Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina (8 March 1806 – 9 April 1857) was a Spanish painter in the Romanticism, Romantic style who specialized in portraits.''Arte Español'': Journal of the "Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte''Estudio y ...

and

Jenaro Pérez Villaamil Jenaro Pérez de Villaamil y d'Huguet (3 February 1807 – 5 June 1854) was a Spanish painter in the Romantic style who specialized in landscapes with figures and architectural scenes. He often inflated the scale of the buildings relative ...

.Brief biography
@ Afundación. In 1858, he won a silver medal at the Exposición de Galiza for his watercolor "A miña tristura" (My Sadness). Although initially influenced by the landscape style of the Belgian-born painter

Carlos de Haes Carlos Sebastián Pedro Hubert de Haes (January 25, 1829 – June 17, 1898) was a Spanish painter from Belgium.Caso, E. F., ''Les Orientalistes de l'école Espagnole,'' ACR edition, 1997, p. 128 He was noted for the Realism (arts), Realism in h ...

, he eventually acquired a brighter palette. Thanks to his family's relative wealth, he was able to travel extensively during the 1860s; visiting the United States (where he painted

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...

), England, France and Switzerland. In 1864, he won a medal at the prestigious National Exhibition of Fine Arts. In 1866, after receiving a grant, he went to Italy for further studies and remained there until 1891.Biographical notes
@ the

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 ...

. Most of his time in Italy was spent in and around

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, where he became associated with the "", a local group of landscape painters. Periodically, he travelled to Spain to participate in various expositions and work on the family estate near Vigo. After his return, he sat as a judge on several art juries and provided illustrations for the magazine ''Blanco y Negro'' from 1893 to 1911. He won two more medals at the National Exhibition, in 1892 and 1899. Eventually, he retired to

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

, where he died of

atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis, characterized by development of abnormalities called lesions in walls of arteries. This is a chronic inflammatory disease involving many different cell types and is driven by eleva ...

in 1916.Biographical notes
@ the Fundación Maria José Jove. Numerous exhibitions of his works were held in Italy up through the 1930s.

Selected paintings

File:Serafín Avendaño. Paisaje con río.jpg, Landscape with River File:Serafín Avendaño. Paisaje con lago. 01.jpg, Landscape with Lake File:Serafín Avendaño 1838-1916, Paisaje con gallega 1891.JPG, Landscape with
Galician Woman File:Serafín Avendaño. Paisaxe de inverno.jpg, Winter Landscape File:Serafín Avendaño, Procesión.jpg, Procession File:Marina, de Serafín Avendaño.jpg, Marine File:Serafín Avendaño 1838-1916, A carreta de argazo.jpg, A Cartful of Seaweed

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Avendaño.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avendano, Serafin 1838 births 1916 deaths 19th-century Spanish painters 19th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters Painters from Galicia (Spain) Spanish landscape painters Spanish genre painters People from Vigo

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links