José Pinazo Martínez

JOSÉ PINAZO MARTÍNEZ (Rome, 1879 - Madrid, 1933)
"Portrait of a gentleman.
Oil on canvas.
Attached handwritten letter by the artist's grandson.
Measurements: 51 x 49,5 cm; 59,5 x 54 cm (frame).
Painter and sculptor, son of Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench, was born in Rome when his father was a pensioner there, and at the age of two he returned to Valencia with his family. In his early years he began his training in the family workshop, after which he entered the School of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia. He soon began to be known through the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, being awarded with honorable mention in 1895 and third medal in 1897 and 1901. He also participated in the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1900, obtaining the second medal. After this period he began a series of trips that would take him to Paris, Rome and London, settling in Madrid on his return to Spain. He continued to participate in important official exhibitions, being awarded the second medal at the Hispano-French Exhibition in Zaragoza in 1908, third at the Universal Exhibition in Brussels in 1910 and second at the International Exhibition in Barcelona in 1911. Finally, in 1915, he obtained the first medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts for his painting "Floreal". Pinazo Martínez began his career with a language clearly influenced by modernism and the naturalism and costumbrismo of Sorolla, although around 1918 he began a process of stylistic purification that would lead to a language of greater sobriety. Works by José Pinazo Martínez are currently preserved in the Prado Museum, the Fine Arts Museum of Valencia San Pío V, the Municipal Museum of Málaga and other public and private collections.