Eugenio Lucas Y Padilla From "Benezit" :
Painter, Eugenio Lucas Y Padilla was born in Alcala de Henares in 1824,
and died in Madrid on September 11, 1870.
He was a student of the Academy of Madrid.
He imitates Spanish masters, especially Velasquez and Goya.
He painted the frescoes of the Royal Opera of Madrid and those
of the Palace of Marques de Salamanca also in Madrid, in the French Rococo style.
Before marrying Perez Villamil, he painted some romantic landscapes
and paintings directly inspired by Goya, of whom he remains the best imitator :
scenes of the inquisition, bull-fighting, majas (pretty young women, especially those who dress gaily),
popular festivals, and war scenes.
He had a great ease, and his technique remains interesting by its vitality.
He traveled to Paris in 1852, where he met Manet, with whom he remained in correspondence (unfortunately lost),
in Italy, in Switzerland, and even, in 1859, in Morocco.
As he imitated Goya, he was in turn imitated, commonly by his son,
Eugenio Lucas Villamil, by Angel Lizcano, and Francisco Domingo Marques.
Modern critics have seen in him something more than an ordinary imitator of Goya,
whose juxtaposition of light and shadow was a prelude to Impressionism.
His paintings are still often confused with those of his followers,
and yet other paintings were often attributed to Goya - some in all good faith, some not.
Prior to the new interest met by his own works, he was honored by many attributions to Goya.
Bibliography: Jacques Lassaigne : 'La Peinture Espagnole, ed Velasquez a Picasso', Skira, Geneva, 1954
Museums include :
Brussels, Belguim; Budapest, Hungary; Castres, & Lille, France; Cologne,
Germany; Madrid (Museo Romantico);
British Museum, London;
Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois |
