Eugenio Lucas Villamil

EUGENIO LUCAS VILLAMIL (Madrid, 1858 - 1918).
Untitled.
Oil on canvas.
Presents old restorations and slight flaws in the frame.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 58 x 47 cm; 74 x 62 cm (frame).
Son of the also painter Eugenio Lucas Velázquez, follower of Francisco de Goya, he inherits from his father the speed and facility in the use of the brush. His brushstroke, short and thick, denounces his deep admiration for the great Spanish masters, such as Velázquez, Carreño, Murillo and, above all, Goya. His painting moves away from academicism and is loose and undone, impastoed and of great chromatic richness, while his subjects speak of the people and their customs. He studied at the Special School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving in Madrid, where he stood out for his mastery as a draftsman. He completed his training by assiduously visiting the Prado Museum, where he copied several works by Goya. He also frequented the intellectual circles of Madrid at the end of the 19th century, until he was discovered by the patron José Lázaro Galdiano, who named him his chamber painter and commissioned him to decorate his palace in Parque Florido. Among the distinctions he received during his lifetime was that of Knight of the Order of Carlos III. Lucas Villamil's work is preserved in the National Gallery in Washington D. C., the Lázaro Galdiano and Mapfre Foundations in Madrid, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Havana, Badajoz and Alava, the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastián, the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and the Camón Aznar Museum.