Eduardo Rosales

Eduardo Rosales was a Spanish painter who became one of the first artists in his region to adopt a naturalistic style influenced by the Venetian school of painting. He was born in Madrid in 1836, where he probably received his first lessons from a local painter named Juan de Arizmendi. He moved to Toledo in 1850, where he worked on various commissions for churches and convents. He may have traveled to Italy between 1854 and 1857, where he met Angelo Nardi, a fellow Spanish painter. He married his cousin Maximina in 1868 and had two children, one of whom, Eloisa, died in infancy and was memorialized in his painting "First Steps". Rosales was in poor health himself, having had tuberculosis for many years, and made frequent visits to Panticosa in the Pyrenees, where the water was famous for its curative properties. In 1869, he left Rome for good and opened a studio in Madrid. The harsh criticism he received for his work "The Death of Lucretia" (1871) left him discouraged and he never painted another large-scale canvas. The following year, hoping to find a climate that would more amenable to his health, he moved to Murcia. Upon the declaration of the First Spanish Republic, he was offered positions at the Museo del Prado, which he rejected, and at the new Spanish Academy in Rome, which he accepted but never filled, due to his worsening condition. He died shortly thereafter, in Madrid on September 13, 1873. His cause of death was tuberculosis. His paintings are characterized by their vivid colors, dynamic compositions, and realistic depictions of landscapes and animals. He was especially fond of painting scenes from the Old Testament, such as The Sacrifice of Isaac or Noah Leaving the Ark. He was also influenced by Caravaggio's use of light and shadow. He was known as "the Spanish Bassano" because of his admiration for the works of the Bassano family, a group of Venetian painters who specialized in biblical genre scenes. His style was influential for many Spanish painters, such as Esteban March, Pablo Pontons, and Mateo Gilarte. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]