Ricardo Navarrete

RICARDO NAVARRETE Y FOS (Serpis, Alicante, 1834 - Madrid, 1909).
"Saint Anthony preaching to the Gentiles", based on an original by Paolo Veronese housed in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
Oil on canvas.
With inscriptions on the back.
It presents losses in the pictorial layer.
Measurements: 36 x 45 cm; 45 x 54 cm (frame).
Painter from Alicante in the second half of the 19th century, brother of the engraver Federico Navarrete, Ricardo tackled a wide range of subjects in his work, standing out especially in portrait, history and customs painting. He began his training at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts in Valencia and then went on to the San Fernando Academy in Madrid. An outstanding student, he obtained grants for Rome and Venice, and during his stay in Italy he began to send works to the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts. In 1864 he received an honourable mention, and three years later his work "Capuchinos en el coro" (Capuchins in the Choir) won him a third medal. Navarrete settled in Venice thanks to the patronage of José María Olmos, and there he devoted himself to painting themes from the history of the city and small Venetian genre paintings which were much admired at the time. He continued to take part in official competitions and in 1873 was awarded a gold medal at the Vienna International Exhibition. That same year he painted a remarkable portrait of the novelist Enrique Pérez Escrich, which was presented as a posthumous tribute at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1897, the year of the writer's death. In 1884 Navarrete returned to Spain and took up a teaching post at the Seville School of Fine Arts, from where he subsequently moved on to Barcelona and Madrid. He was also a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel de Hungría in Seville. Works by Ricardo Navarrete are currently held in the Prado Museum, the Municipal Museum of Játiva, the Museum of Almería, the Provincial Council of Zamora, the Town Hall of Irún, the Civil Government of Vitoria and other public and private collections.