José Cruz Herrera

JOSÉ CRUZ HERRERA (La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz, 1890 - Casablanca, 1972).
"Male portrait", 1944.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated.
Verified by the Museum of the artist (Cruz Herrera Museum of La Línea de la Concepción).
Presents a tear and a hole.
Measurements: 64 × 50 cm; 84 × 73 cm (frame).

José Cruz Herrera has a sober and contained pictorial language, focused on this occasion in the psychological capture of the model. The figure is depicted bust-length, wearing a dark suit, tie and glasses, in a frontal composition that emphasizes the seriousness and intellectual presence of the sitter.

The work stands out for the treatment of light on the face, where the artist concentrates the chromatic nuances and the expressive definition. Against the dark and neutral background, the head emerges with strength, constructed with a sure brushstroke and a warm modeling, typical of the academic portrait tradition that Cruz Herrera mastered extensively.

José Cruz Herrera began his training in Seville with Gonzalo Bilbao and completed it at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. He participated from 1912 in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, where he obtained several awards, including the first medal in 1926. With a scholarship from the Círculo de Bellas Artes, he furthered his studies in Rome and Paris, and in 1921 he held his first individual exhibition in Madrid, after which he began a tour of Latin America.

In 1927 he settled in Casablanca, a key city in his career, and later he also worked in Paris, where he received the Gold Medal of Arts, Sciences and Letters in 1930. He was a corresponding member of the Academies of Fine Arts of Seville and Madrid and received numerous official distinctions. His work is represented in the Cruz Herrera Museum in La Línea de la Concepción, as well as in the Fine Arts Museums of Lugo and Cádiz, among other public and private collections.