Miguel Vaquer

MIGUEL VAQUER CLAUMARTE (Ondara, 1919 - Valencia, 1988).
"Still life of flowers".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in lower right corner.
Measurements: 72 x 68 cm, 81 x 77 cm (frame).
When he was twelve years old he entered the Royal Academy of San Carlos of Valencia, thanks to the influence and the interest that José Benlliure awoke in this child, since, by the rules of this school, the access was not allowed to children under fourteen years old. Among his teachers were some of the most brilliant painters of the time, such as Ricardo Verde Salvat, Vicente Mulet and José Benlliure Gil himself.
From 1923, when Miguel Vaquer was thirteen years old, he began to win important prizes related to the art world. The first of them gave him the opportunity to travel to Granada. There, he made a stupendous painting of the Alhambra, which the critics of the time praised enormously, pointing out that the work could have been perfectly signed by an established painter.
At the age of fifteen he won another prize with which he traveled to Jativa and stayed at the now defunct Hotel Españoleto, where he took the opportunity to paint numerous works. At that age he is already considered in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos the most artistically gifted disciple.
In 1927 and with only seventeen years of age, he finished his painting studies with honors and made his first exhibition for sale that same year. The great Basque painter Don Ignacio Zuluaga, who attended the event, was impressed and congratulated Miguel, prophesying a great future for him.
At the age of twenty he left for Paris where he remained for five years training and developing his artistic faculties. During his stay in Paris Miguel Vaquer made numerous trips and travels to Spain and neighboring countries such as Belgium, Austria and Holland, where the critics of the time described him as the Mozart of painting.