Artist

Eduardo Rosales

(Madrid, 1836-1873)

Eduardo Rosales was born in Madrid in 1836. In 1857 he travels to Italy thanks to his friends Vicente Palmaroli and Luis Álvarez Catalá. In Rome he becomes fascinated by the great Rennaissance masters and his works will become impregnated with academic formalism and the shades of the Nazarene painters. His first great success was achieved in 1864 when he obtained the first medal in the National Exhibition for the painting Queen Isabel la Católica dictating her last will and Testament (Madrid, Prado Museum), a work that became a milestone in the history of Spanish painting, and that was also awarded in the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1867. His training is finally completed through several trips to Paris in 1865 and 1867. In 1868, he settled permanently in Madrid. Commissions will begin pouring in from the aristocracy, as from the church and the state. His portraits will become widely renowned due to his alchemical power to transmute the knowledge obtained from the masterpieces of Velázquez and the sensuous colour of the Venetian paintings, creating a new language, completely personal.