Federico de Madrazo

Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz ( born February 9, 1815 in Rome, † June 10, 1894 in Madrid) was a Spanish painter and lithographer of romance and from 1860 to 1868 and from 1881 until his death, director of the Museo del Prado.

Life

Madrazo was the child of a Spanish dynasty of painters. His father was the painter José de Madrazo y Agudo. His brother Louis and his son Raimundo taken the painter profession, his brothers Juan Pedro and acted as critic or architect.

Federico de Madrazo parents had met in Rome, his mother was a German. He was baptized in St. Peter; his godfather was Prince Frederick of Saxony. The family moved in 1819 to Madrid.

A first artistic training was Federico de Madrazo by his father, Carlos Luis de Rivera, Esteban Velazquez and Jose Aparición. Already as a youth of fourteen he painted a resurrection scene, which was acquired by Queen Maria Christina.

He attended the Royal Academy of San Fernando. In 1832 he went to Paris, where he continued his studies with Franz Xaver Winterhalter and Jean -Auguste -Dominique Ingres. 1835, back in Madrid, he founded together with his brother Pedro Eugenio de Ochoa, the art magazine El Artista. After another stay in 1837 in Paris, he moved 1840 to Rome, where he met the German Nazarenes and felt drawn to them. His picture The three Marys applies as a result of this encounter. 1842 he returned to Madrid, where he received the post of court painter of Queen Isabella II. The national exhibitions of Spain him in 1838, 1839 and 1855 gold medals were awarded. In 1846 he was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour.

This was followed on 19 July 1868, the appointed director of the Museo del Prado, which he had aimed for three years earlier and the President of the Academy of San Fernando in; an office which he held nine times. During his time as director of the Prado, he gave a new version of the catalog in order and was intent on a further expansion of the collections. 1867 was considerably expanded since its inception Museum Sundays so crowded that ushers had to be stopped. With the fall and the flight Isabella II in 1868 did not result in the Prado changes: the museum was nationalized. Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz filed on November 19, 1868 his resignation as director of the museum. Of 14 May 1881 until his death he was later director of the Prado.

Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz ' sons Ricardo and Raimondo also taken the profession of painter. His daughter Cecilia married the painter Mariano Fortuny y Carbó. Federico de Madrazo is buried in the Cementerio de San Isidro in Madrid.

Work

Madrazo work that is assigned to the romance, comprises mainly portraits, especially of the Spanish nobility, history paintings and pictures with religious themes. While he initially laid emphasis on careful and accurate reproduction of details, his painting was later "free and summary ". One of his students in Madrid was the French painter Léon Bonnat (1833-1922), José Casado del Alisal continue, Alejandro Ferrant y Fischermans, José Garnelo and Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz be mentioned.