José María Murillo Bracho

JOSE MARIA MURILLO BRACHO (Seville, 1827 - Malaga, 1882).
"Concert of birds".
Oil on canvas.
One of the pieces is signed.
Measurements: 49 x 41 cm; 68 x 60 cm (frames, x2).
In this group of works, the author uses the figure of the bird as a central motif to develop a purely plastic research. Beyond its descriptive value, each bird becomes a pretext to explore the gestural and dynamic stroke, in constant dialogue with wide planes of pure color, authentic protagonists of the composition. The pieces deliberately move away from a naturalistic or academic representation of the animal: the birds do not appear enclosed in anecdotal scenes, but organically integrated in open and luminous landscapes, dominated by light shades and, especially, by the pastel blue of the sky, which envelops and balances the scene.
Although born in Seville, José María Bracho Murillo is considered an outstanding member of the Malaga school. He lived in Seville until 1876, where he was trained at the Academy of Noble Arts of Santa Isabel de Hungría, obtaining in 1844, with only seventeen years old, the first prize in the classes of Model in Plaster and Pieces. Among his teachers was the famous Antonio María Esquivel, who would decisively mark his artistic career.
In the mid-nineteenth century he worked as a professor of drawing in Cadiz and later at the Institute of Jerez de la Frontera, participating in local exhibitions in which he won several awards. His presence in national contests was constant, being praised by the critics for the delicacy and precision of his painting. In 1876 he settled in Malaga, where the Academy of Fine Arts of San Telmo hired him as a teacher and acquired several of his works as didactic material for the teaching of coloring.
Murillo Bracho's work is dominated by a purist language, characterized by compositional balance, formal sobriety and an extraordinary attention to color. Whether in flowers, fruits or -as in this set- in the representation of birds, his painting is based on fidelity to nature, without falling into excessive realism, achieving elegant, harmonious and visually attractive images. His work is now part of the collections of the Municipal Museum of Malaga.