Alejandro Ferrant

ALEJANDRO FERRANT Y FISCHERMANS (Madrid, 1843 - 1917).
"Male Academy, study-sketch".
Oil on canvas adhered to táblex.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 54 x 34 cm; 79 x 57 x 3 cm (frame).

Alejandro Ferrant y Fischermans studied with his uncle the artist and academician Luis Ferrant y Llausas in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. He was a protégé and pensioner of the Infante Don Sebastián. In 1874 he traveled to Rome to reinforce his studies when he was pensioned by the government of Spain in the first promotion of painters of the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, together with Francisco Pradilla, Casto Plasencia, Manuel Castellano, Eduardo Sánchez Solá and Jaime Morera. He was director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Madrid, which became part of the Prado Museum in 1971. His son Ángel Ferrant was an outstanding sculptor of the Spanish avant-garde. As a decorator it is worth mentioning his ornamental work in the Linares Palace in Madrid and the Miramar Oratory in San Sebastian, among others. His best known work as a decorator was the church of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid, in which he worked with Manuel Domínguez and Francisco Pradilla. He excelled in drawing, but also in different painting techniques such as watercolor, oil and fresco. He captured a sober and elegant coloring, which in the case of portraits is linked to the baroque tradition by the use of a variety of artistic themes in history, genre, religious and landscapes as well as in portraits and decorative painting. He presented works and obtained several medals in national and international exhibitions. Among his works are Sibyls and Prophets in the dome of San Francisco el Grande, Madrid, The Last Communion of San Fernando, The Burial of San Sebastian and Cisneros, founder of the hospital of Illescas, the latter painting with which he won the first medal at the National Exhibition of 1892.