Francisco Domingo Marqués

FRANCISCO DOMINGO MARQUÉS, (Valencia, 1842 - Madrid, 1920).
"Maja", 1920.
Oil on cardboard.
Signed in the upper right corner. Signed, dated and dedicated on the back.
Measurements: 17 x 13.50 cm, 46 x 42 cm (frame).
Domingo Marqués began his training at the School of Fine Arts of San Carlos in Valencia and in the workshop of Rafael Montesinos, who instilled in him his deep admiration for Ribera. In 1864 he moved to Madrid in order to further his studies at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, and in 1868 he obtained the coveted pension for Rome. Already in 1866 he had been awarded the third medal at the National Exhibition in Madrid for the painting "Un lance en el siglo XVII", and the following year with a gold medal for the same work in the Regional Valencian, merits that helped him to get the pension for Italy. In Rome he attended the workshop of Eduardo Rosales and became acquainted with Mariano Fortuny, whose posthumous portrait he painted in 1884. His first work as a scholarship holder, "El último día de Sagunto", was sent to the Regional Exhibition of Valencia in 1869 and to the National Exhibition in 1871, together with the painting "Santa Clara", which won him the first medal. His second work, "Portrait of Manuel Ruiz Zorilla", was finished in Valencia, in his famous studio of La Gallera, which had become the center of Valencian artistic life. For a year he was a professor at the School of Fine Arts of San Carlos, having the Benlliure brothers as disciples. In 1871, when he did not return from Rome, the Diputación decided to withdraw his pension. It was then that Domingo settled in Madrid, where he made decorations in the palaces of Portugalete and Fernán Núñez. In 1875 he moved to Paris, dedicating himself almost exclusively to the realization of anecdotal paintings of exquisite execution, such as "Un alto en la montería", of 1901. These works are worked in a meticulous and colorful style, and detonate a certain impressionist influence. In 1914, due to the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Spain and settled again in Madrid, obtaining official recognition. He entered the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in 1917, and was the object of a public tribute in Valencia the following year. Domingo's mature style is heir to the naturalistic tradition of the Baroque, and his brushstroke comes to undo the pictorial matter to focus his interest in color and light. He is represented in the Prado Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of Valencia, Malaga and Asturias, the Hispanic Society and the Metropolitan of New York and the Lázaro Galdiano of Madrid, among many others.