José Murillo Bracho

JOSÉ MURILLO BRACHO (Seville, 1827 - Málaga, 1882).
Untitled.
Oil on canvas.
It has slight restorations, Repainting and marks on the paint layer.
Signed and located (Malaga).
Measurements: 85 x 75 cm.
During the 19th century the genre of the still life occupied a prominent place in the visual arts, especially in Europe. This type of painting not only celebrated the beauty of everyday objects, but it was also a symbolic vehicle loaded with meaning. It represented the transience of life and the temporality of earthly pleasures, often evoking concepts such as abundance, the virtue of agricultural work or even vanitas, reminding us of the inevitability of death.
Although born in Seville, José María Bracho Murillo is considered to belong to the Malaga school. He lived until 1876 in Seville, and there he studied at the Academy of Noble Arts of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, achieving there in 1844, at the age of seventeen, the first prize in the classes of Model in Plaster and Pieces. Among his teachers at that time was the famous painter Antonio María Esquivel, who would become his teacher. He worked as a professor of drawing in Cadiz in the middle of the century, and in 1854 he commissioned Esquivel to paint two great nude works: "La casta Susana" and "La mujer de Putifar" (Putifar's wife). He also taught line drawing and figure drawing at the Institute of Jerez de la Frontera, participating in the local exhibitions of 1858 and 1862, where he won a silver medal. It seems that at that time he also sent works to the National Exhibition of Madrid. Later he will participate in the National of 1871, being praised by the critics with phrases such as "You deserve a flower because of your primor" (Ramos Carrión). In 1876 he is in Malaga, where the Academy of Fine Arts of San Telmo hires him as a teacher and acquires several of his paintings as didactic material for the coloring class. In 1877 he presented several still lifes and fruit paintings at the exhibition held on the occasion of King Alfonso XIII's visit to Malaga. On this occasion, the monarch heard from the master Ferrándiz that Murillo Bracho "paints with the mastery of a teacher and the precision and awareness of a nature lover. The flowers are real, without his realism offending us". Some of his works exhibited on this occasion would later be acquired by the city council. In 1878 he participated again in the National Exhibition, with several paintings of flowers, grapes and other fruits. That same year he took part in the Universal Exhibition in Paris. Despite his deteriorated health, Murillo Bracho participates with several of his paintings in the local Exposition of 1880. In Murillo Bracho's work, his two favorite themes always predominated, grapes and flowers, captured through a purist language that recalls past times for its balance, weight and good workmanship. His painting is based on the real fidelity of the objects to be represented, always rich in their chromatism and with an attractive and elegant appearance. Murillo Bracho is currently represented in the Municipal Museum of Malaga.