Francisco Rodríguez Sanclement

FRANCISCO RODRÍGUEZ SANCLEMENT, (Elche, Alicante, 1893 - Santa Pola, Alicante, 1968).
"Taking a nap".
Oil on prepared cardboard.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 23 x 32 cm, 38 x 47 cm (frame).
Rodríguez Sanclement studied at the School of San Fernando, where he received classes from such eminent Valencians as C. Pla, Muñoz Degrain and J. Garnelo. He received the title of professor of drawing in 1914, with a gold medal in coloring and composition, among other honorary diplomas. During these years he also studied the classics, especially Velázquez and Zurbarán, copying in the Prado Museum. He made a trip to Seville, where he was impressed by Andalusian folklore, which he captured repeatedly in his canvases with motifs taken from gypsy camps. In 1921 he returned to Elche, and two years later he founded with José Lillo an artistic workshop where he made numerous tapestries, paintings, and also designs and decorations for fallas. In 1932 he moved again to Madrid, where his painting was a great success, and he held exhibitions at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, and took part in the Salón de Otoño, etc. The civil war interrupted this period, and the painter returned to Elche in 1937. Previously, in 1912, he had obtained an honorable mention in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, where he would participate again in 1915, 1930, 1934 and finally 1936, in whose inconclusive exhibition he had practically assured a second medal for the painting "The painter and his model". After the war, he took part again in the 1948 edition. Once in Elche, he was appointed director of the Municipal School of Drawing and Painting, where he tutored outstanding artists from Elche. During these years Rodríguez Sánchez-Clement went through a very prolific period, painting landscapes of Elche and portraits, without abandoning his well-known flamenco dance scenes. In 1944 he obtained the prize of honor in the Provincial Exhibition of Fine Arts, and three years later he moved to Valencia, where he exhibited splendid paintings with great success, and his works were even exported to different parts of the world. In fact, in France he was known by the nickname of "Le petit Sorolla", due to his loose brushstroke and the similarity of his luminous and impressionist treatment. He was also awarded a second medal by the Portuguese Society of Fine Arts. He spent his last days in Santa Pola, next to the Mediterranean Sea that he captured so much in his canvases. His legacy has been very important, given the great fecundity of the painter, and among his themes stand out those of gypsies and flamencas, his famous palcos, portraits, landscapes and seascapes, genre scenes, religious themes, allegories, majorales, bullfights and especially his famous female nudes, which reveal the mastery of Rodriguez Sanchez-Clement like no other subject. Almost twenty years after his death, in 1984, a great tribute was dedicated to him in the Sorolla Hall in Elche.