Ignacio Pinazo

IGNACIO PINAZO CAMARLENCH (Valencia, 1849 - Godella, Valencia, 1916).
"The gypsy transhumants", 1897.
Oil on canvas.
Preserves original canvas.
Presents puncture on the canvas and missing in the original frame.
Signed and dated in the right corner.
Measurements: 43 x 61 cm; 65 x 83 cm (frame).
In this scene Pinazo, shows his great virtuosity with the brush. Combining fleeting touches with longer brushstrokes, which are arranged horizontally or vertically, the author builds his composition based on this technical game, conditioned by the use of color. The scene is characterized by a group of people in front of a caravan.
Born into a humble family, Pinazo was forced from a very young age to contribute with different occupations to the support of his home. He had only completed the eighth grade at school when his mother died of cholera, so he soon had to work in various trades, including silversmith, tile decorator, baker, gilder and painter of fans. After the death of his father he went to live with his grandfather, and in 1864 he entered the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a disciple of José Fernández Olmos. During this period he earned his living as a milliner. He began his artistic training at the age of twenty-one, achieving his first success three years later, in Barcelona. In 1871 he entered the National Exhibition of Fine Arts for the first time. He was in Rome twice, the first time thanks to the sale of a painting, in 1873, and the second time with a scholarship, between 1876 and 1881. There he began his great productions of history, far from the conventions of the genre. In his first period he developed an academicist style, but from 1874 he began a more intimate and impressionist pictorial line. When he returned to Valencia he abandoned historical themes, and instead began to paint family subjects, nudes and scenes of everyday life. Thus, he is now considered a precursor, both in themes and style, of Joaquín Sorolla and Francisco Domingo. In 1884 Pinazo left Valencia temporarily due to a cholera epidemic, settling in the house that the banker José Jaumandreu owned in Bétera. From his return that same year until 1886, he taught at the School of Fine Arts in Valencia. During these years he received numerous commissions from the Valencian aristocracy, counting among his clients prominent figures such as the Marquise of Benicarló. Pinazo showed his works at the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts in Madrid, winning the silver medal in 1881 and 1885, and the gold medal in 1897 and 1899. In 1896 he was named academician of San Carlos, and in 1906 he will also be named academician of San Fernando, in Madrid. In 1900 he was involved in the decoration of the staircase of the palace of Don José Ayora, together with Antonio Fillol, Peris Brell, Ricardo Verde and Luis Beüt. For these years he received a royal medal and, in 1912, the city of Valencia dedicated a street to him. At his death, in 1916, the commemorative acts of his life and work will follow. Pinazo is currently represented in the Prado Museum, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Museum and Circle of Fine Arts in Valencia, his House-Museum in Godella and the Valencian Provincial Council, as well as in several important private collections.