José Denis Belgrano

JOSE DENIS BELGRANO (Malaga, 1844 - 1917).
"Bullfighter.
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 35 x 19.5 cm; 52 x 36 cm (frame).
Notable exponent of the Malaga School of Painting, José Denis Belgrano was the favorite painter of the bourgeoisie of Malaga in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, as his costumbrista work reached an excellent mastery. He was a student of Bernardo Ferrándiz at the School of the Academy of Fine Arts of San Telmo in Malaga and his artistic career is well defined by three stages. The first of them is recognizable by his self-taught training, it is in the year 1855 when he enrolled for studies in Malaga, after a short stay with his relatives in Leon. From these years there is no data of his possible works, it is from 1862 when, after appreciating his qualities, he was granted a scholarship to Rome for two years by the patron and friend of the family Marquis of Guadiaro. The second stage is that of academic training and spans from 1862 to 1876. During this stay in the Roman capital, while studying, he made a large number of drawings and watercolors, and also made several compositions, one of the most outstanding is "La duda de Santo Tomás del Guercino", currently in the Cathedral of Malaga. In 1867 he painted the canvas entitled "Salida de la cuadrilla", with this work we can already appreciate what was going to be his main theme, the costumbrista type. In those years, according to the texts of the time, he defined himself as a "painter of bullfighters and majas". He enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in 1868, under the teaching of the recently appointed professor Bernardo Ferrándiz and in the subject of Composition and Coloring, being one of his first students. From then on, the third stage is characterized by an evolution in his technique, going from the loose stroke of Sevillian romanticism to an elaborated and rigorous preciosity. The influence of his master can also be seen in his portraits, full of great personality and psychological study. Denis worked on numerous commissions to portray characters of the local elite. In his pictorial activity he unites the direct capture of nature with the costumbrismo of Ferrándiz and the preciosity of Fortuny. The result of this are the genre scenes in which he captures his snapshots of everyday life with a touch of frivolity and picaresque.