Vicente Rodés

VICENTE RODÉS ARIES (Alicante, 1783 - Barcelona, 1858).
"Study of hand".
Pencil on paper.
Signed in the lower left corner.
It has some cracks and moisture at the bottom and some moisture stains.
Measurements. 24 x 39 cm; 29 x 44 cm (frame).

This painter stands out as one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century, cultivating exceptionally the pastel technique. He began his artistic studies in the Drawing School of the Consulate of his native city, of which he would become interim director in 1809, when he was only eighteen years old. There he was trained in the neoclassical style of Vicente Suárez Ordóñez and Peyret Alcañiz. Shortly after, he went on to the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia as a pensioner of the Royal Consulate of Alicante. Thus, between 1803 and 1805, he moved to Valencia where he appears documented in his records in 1805. In 1804 he had entered the General Painting Competition, for the third class. The exercise of this class consisted of drawing the statue of the Gladiator, as a subject of thought, and as a "sudden" drawing the statue of the Mercury of Calzadillo. In 1807, he again entered the General Competition, for the third class of painting, finally winning a prize for a drawing of the Fauno del Cabrito and another of La Fama. In 1809, he interrupted his academic career to return to Alicante, possibly as a result of the outbreak of the War of Independence. In this city he was named "interim director" of the Consulate's School of Drawing, due to the death of its previous director, the painter Vicente Suárez Ordóñez. Rodes continued, however, with his studies at the Academy of San Carlos, combining them with his position as director of the drawing school of the Consulate of Alicante. In 1810, he obtained the prize of the natural of the Academy of San Carlos, and in 1811 he obtained a bonus of 40 pesos in the specialty of painting of first class. In 1817 he obtains the degree of supernumerary academician for San Carlos, and in 1818 that of academician of merit, for his painting Spain placing in the throne to the King Fernando VII. In Valencia he achieved great fame as an artist, and his miniature portraits in pastel were in great demand. For some time he continued working in Valencia, until, in 1820, he went to Barcelona to paint the portrait of the Count of Santa Clara. From that moment on, and due to the success he achieved with this work, he took up residence in Barcelona, opening his workshop in Escudellers Street, where the painter Luis Rigalt also lived. This prestige earned him the appointment as professor of coloring and composition at the School of Noble Arts of the Board of Trade, in 1834, being at that time his painting Abraham taking his servant Agar as his wife. Later, he occupied the position of professor of painting at the Escuela de la Lonja, reaching the direction of the same in 1840, first as interim director, vice-director, and finally as general director, in 1850. His merit was recognized by the Academy of San Luis de Zaragoza, which on August 3, 1845 named him a member of merit. An important member of the society of his time, he was a member of the Society for the Promotion of the Enlightenment, the National Academy of Natural Sciences and Arts of Barcelona, as well as the Economic Society of the Country of Barcelona, the Philharmonic Society, the Society for the Promotion of Education in Tarragona, the Patriotic Society for the Promotion of the Enlightenment of Reus, and several other cultural societies.