Manuel Sigüenza

MANUEL SIGÜENZA, (Valencia, 1870 - 1964).
"Cap Mari", Mallorca.
Oil on panel.
Signed, titled and located in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 29 x 19 cm; 37 x 28 cm (frame).

He was a Spanish painter. Sigüenza enters the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos, where he was a disciple of Pinazo and Aixa, and contemporary of Sorolla, Mongrell, Andreu or Fillol. With his teacher and friend Pinazo he shared a humble character, and disinterest in social pomp and attachment to their places of residence, which were very close: Burjassot and Godella. Both enjoyed reproducing with their brush the beauty of their immediate surroundings, with the difference that Sigüenza hardly sold any paintings and never enjoyed a solo exhibition during his lifetime.
The need to receive stable income to support his family kept him always clinging to his job as a valued teacher at the School of Artisans of Valencia and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos or in his prestigious academy of painting and drawing, meeting and training place for half a century of numerous artists such as Juan Rico López, Leopoldo García Ramón or Joaquín Camps among others. Despite not cultivating his career professionally as a painter, he was distinguished with important awards such as the medals of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1892 and 1910 or the Valencian Regional Exhibition of 1909. Sigüenza was an artist "of enormous purity" of whom three aspects should be highlighted. The first is his status as heir to Valencian instantism, a derivation of impressionism consisting of painting from life and very quickly to capture the moment. This fresh and direct technique, learned above all from Pinazo, was executed in small panels. The second aspect of his painting was an unconscious "Velazquism", whose classicist balance, "his ability to capture the air and space", was different from the typical Valencian style. And a third aspect was that of being a painter of gardens, a mature theme in which he exploited his gift for color in the tradition of Rusiñol, Genaro Palau, Ignacio Pinazo, Benlliure or Sorolla.