Francisco Pradilla Ortiz

FRANCISCO PRADILLA ORTIZ (Villanueva de Gállego, Zaragoza, 1848 - Madrid, 1921).
"The old port of Vigo", 1873.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Signed, dated and located in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 94 x 173 cm.
Francisco Pradilla's painting that represents the old port of Vigo, being one of the earliest and most significant manifestations of the affective and artistic link that the Aragonese painter established with this Galician city. Beyond its interest as a landscape and genre representation, the work is also a testimony of a crucial stage in the artist's life, marked by the discovery of an environment that deeply inspired him both aesthetically and personally. It was in Vigo where Pradilla met Dolores González del Villar, whom he later married.
The painting offers a detailed and poetic vision of the port of Vigo. The fishing boats, the humid and luminous atmosphere of the Atlantic, all of this is treated with a realistic sensibility that denotes the mastery of drawing and color that characterizes Pradilla's work.
This theme was treated by the artist on several occasions as can be seen in his drawing entitled "La Ribera de Vigo", with which Pradilla won first prize in the drawing contest organized in 1874 by the magazine La Ilustración Española y Americana.
Francisco Pradilla began his training at the San Luis School of Fine Arts in Zaragoza, and in 1868 continued at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid, where he was a disciple of Federico de Madrazo, Carlos de Haes, Carlos Luis de Ribera and Ponciano Ponzano. He completed his training in these years by copying works of the great masters of the Prado Museum. In 1874 he won the Drawing Prize of the "Spanish and American Enlightenment", and obtained a scholarship to study in Rome, where he lived for twenty-three years, until his appointment as director of the Prado in 1897. In 1878, he took part in the National Exhibition of Madrid, and obtained the Medal of Honor, the same distinction he obtained that same year in the Universal Exhibition of Paris. As a result of these successes he received numerous commissions not only from Spain and France, but also from America and other European countries. He travels around Spain and is interested in capturing genre scenes full of grace and color, always supported by an exceptional mastery of drawing. Although he did not have solo exhibitions, his works were part of exhibitions and competitions in cities around the world, such as London, Paris, Berlin, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires. He was a member of the Royal Academies of San Fernando and San Luis, the French Academy and the Hispanic Society of New York. He received, among other decorations, the Cross of Isabella the Catholic and the Legion of Honor. His work is present in the Prado Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of Zaragoza, Santander, Havana and São Paulo, the MACBA, the National Library and the Romantic Museum of Madrid, among others.