José Garnelo

JOSÉ GARNELO (Enguera, 1866 - Montilla, 1944).
"Male profile".
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 37 x 24 cm, 58 x 44,5 cm (frame).
José Santiago Garnelo y Alda was a Spanish painter. He was deputy director of the Prado Museum and director of the Spanish Academy in Rome.
He arrived in Montilla with his family when he was barely two years old. His first studies were carried out in this city and he finished high school at the Aguilar y Eslava Institute in Cabra in 1882. In Seville he began to study Philosophy and Letters, a career that he abandoned to enter the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes (1883-85) in the same city, enrolling in Painting, where he won his first awards.
In 1885, he continued his studies in Madrid, enrolling in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Being an advanced disciple of Casto Plasencia, he also received teachings from Carlos Luis de Rivera and Dióscoro Puebla, among others; obtaining the Color Medal in the 1885-86 course. In 1888 he obtains a scholarship to study historical painting in Rome, and leaves with Joaquín Sorolla, José Villegas Cordero and his brother Manuel, among others.
His work is present in prestigious private collections, in official organizations -generally of difficult access-, national museums, embassies and other institutions of recognized prestige. Among them are the Fine Arts Museums of Cadiz, Cordoba, Malaga, Seville and Valencia; Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona; Camón Aznar Museum (Zaragoza); San Telmo Museum (San Sebastian); Museum of Pontevedra; Zamora Provincial Council; Basilica of Pilar (Zaragoza); parish church of San Miguel Arcángel (Enguera); parish church of Santiago (Montilla); Spanish Embassies in Oslo and Lisbon; Palace of Aranjuez; Reales Alcázares of Seville.
In Madrid we can contemplate his works in: Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Naval Museum, Institute of Valencia de Don Juan, Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense University, Institute of Spain, Supreme Court and Palace of the Infanta Isabel de Borbón. The Prado Museum has among its holdings four works by the master included in the "Prado dispersed" collection.