12 Works, June 17th. is Francisco Oller's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #165

Francisco Manuel Oller y Cestero (Puerto Rican, 1833–1917)

Lady Bullfighter on a Horse,” c. 1851-2

Oil on canvas

Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan

Oller’s earliest surviving European painting, below, evinces the duality informing much of his work: It depicts a woman bullfighter in Madrid—an anomaly in a male-dominated field, incongruously placed in a Caribbean setting. You could take the painter out of Puerto Rico, but you often couldn’t take Puerto Rico out of the paintings (palm trees, upper left), even in some that seem overly impressed by Impressionism. More on this painting

Francisco Oller (June 17, 1833 – May 17, 1917) was a Puerto Rican painter. Oller is the only Latin American painter to have played a role in the development of Impressionism. One of the most distinguished transatlantic painters of his day, Oller helped transform painting in the Caribbean.

Francisco Manuel Oller y Cestero (Puerto Rican, 1833–1917)

La leçon de dessin, The drawing lesson

Oil on canvas

54 x 65 cm. (21.3 x 25.6 in.)

Private collection

Oller was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, the third of four children of aristocratic and wealthy Spanish parents. When he was eleven he began to study art under the tutelage of Juan Cleto Noa, a painter who had an art academy in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, Oller demonstrated that he had an enormous talent in art and in 1848, when Oller was fifteen years old, General Juan Prim, Governor of Puerto Rico, offered Oller the opportunity to continue his studies in Rome. However, the offer was not accepted as Oller's mother felt that he was too young to travel abroad by himself.

Francisco Oller

The Student, c. 1864

Oil on canvas

Louvre Museum 

This is one of Oller’s rare interior scenes from his first years in Paris. It evokes the domestic intimacy of a couple sewing and reading. Details such as the objects on the desk and chair, the diminutive pictures on the wall, and the small shelf for glass objects are described with subtle precision. The poses of the man and woman are probably derived from famous works of art by Johannes Vermeer and Gustave Courbet that Oller had seen in Paris. The skull that the young man holds in his right hand is probably a reference to the swift passage of time. More on this painting

When Oller was eighteen, he moved to Madrid, Spain, where he studied painting at the Royal Academy of San Fernando. In 1858, he moved to Paris, France where he studied under Thomas Couture. Later he enrolled to study art in the Louvre. During his free time, Oller, who had a baritone type of singing voice, worked and participated in local Italian operas. He frequently visited cafés where he met with fellow artists.

Francisco Manuel Oller y Cestero (Puerto Rican, 1833–1917)

Paul Cézanne Painting Out of Doors, c. 1864

Oil on canvas

10 x 13 in. (25.4 x 33 cm)

BROOKLYN MUSEUM

Oller first met Paul Cézanne in Paris in 1861, soon after the latter’s arrival from his native Aix-en-Provence in April of that year. The two painters prepared submissions together to the 1865 Paris Salon exhibition and developed a close friendship. In his depiction of Cézanne, Oller chose a naturalist style that favored pictorial illusionism with clear separations of background, middle ground, and foreground. More on this painting

For a short time, Paul Cézanne was one of Oller's students, although their professional relationship deteriorated with time. By 1865, Oller was the first Puerto Rican and Hispanic Impressionist artist. In 1868, he founded The Free Academy of Art of Puerto Rico.

Upon his return to Puerto Rico from France in 1866 he found himself face-to-face with slavery and he would create a number of works including El negro flageado (The negro being flogged), El castigo del negro enamorado (the punishment of the negro in love), and others depicting slavery in Puerto Rico.

Francisco Manuel Oller y Cestero (Puerto Rican, 1833–1917)

Our lady of Lourdes, c. 1878

Oil on canvas

32 x 41 cm. (12.6 x 16.1 in.)

Private collection

Our Lady of Lourdes is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated in honour of the Marian apparitions that are claimed to have occurred in 1858 in the vicinity of Lourdes in France. The first of these is the apparition of 11 February 1858, when 14 year-old Bernadette Soubirous told her mother that a "lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle (1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) from the town) while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend. Similar apparitions of the "Lady" were reported on 18 occasions that year, until the climax revelation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception took place. More on Our Lady of Lourdes

Francisco Oller y Cestero

San Francisco de Paula

Oil on canvas

65 x 53 cm

Private collection

Francis of Paola was an Italian mendicant friar and the founder of the Roman Catholic Order of Minims. Unlike the majority of founders of men's religious orders, and like his patron saint, Francis was never ordained a priest. More on Francis of Paola

Oller spent nearly two decades in Europe working alongside the pioneers of Impressionism, and, through his travels, participated in a vibrant exchange of aesthetic ideas, forging his own brand of international modernism while engaging social issues unique to the Caribbean. During his three trips to Paris, Oller affiliated himself with Paul Cézanne, fellow Caribbean artist Camille Pissarro (born in St. Thomas), and other members of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements.

Francisco Oller

The Battle of Trevino, c. 1879 

Oil on canvas

Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico

The Battle of Treviño represents a very significant historical moment. During much of the nineteenth century, Spain was in the midst of a series of civil wars, the Carlist Wars of Succession, waged between the supporters of Isabel II (the “Isabelino Liberals”) and the supporters of Infante Carlos (the “Carlists”) over who would succeed Ferdinand VII, the father of Isabel and brother of Carlos. On July 7, 1875, during the third Carlist War, Liberal troops fought for control of the town of Vitoria, south of Bilbao. Colonel Juan Contreras y Martínez, with fewer than a hundred lancers against the many-times-greater Carlist army, attacked the enemy troops on the left flank of a mountain and overcame the powerful battalion. The victory in the Battle of Treviño became a rallying point and propaganda coup for the Liberal government of Spain and opened the door to Col. Contreras’ appointment as King Alfonso XII’s aide-de-camp. More on The Battle of Treviño

Oller painted Colonel Juan Contreras as the central figure during a battle that took place on July 8, 1875. The battle was part of the Carlist Wars, a 19th-century war over the succession of the Spanish throne. Oller painted this during his final visit to Europe, where he was appointed as the official painter of the Spanish Court of King Alfonso XII. The artist opposed the conventions of realism and precision of more traditional military paintings. Instead, he uses Impressionistic style to capture the atmosphere and drama of the moment. Dabs of color blend together to create an out-of-focus effect. Oller also effectively used lines to draw attention to Colonel Contreras; the clouds, hills, and soldiers direct focus to the central figure.

Francisco Manuel Oller  (1833–1917)

Retrato del Coronel Francisco Enrique Contreras/ Portrait of Colonel Francisco Enrique Contreras, c. 1880

Oil on canvas

Height: 151.4 cm (59.6 in); Width: 105.4 cm (41.4 in)

Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico

Oller portrays Francisco Enrique Contreras in his colonel’s uniform, his left hand on his sword, and his binoculars in his right hand. A characterization of a successful career officer, should not fail to show the soldiers under his command, who are outlined on the lower right corner. 

Oller arrived in Spain in 1877 having spent four years in France (1873-77), painting with Cezanne, Guillamin, and Pisarro. The color scheme used in this landscape, yellow hills with blue shading, is derived from Impressionism. More on this painting

Francisco Oller

Trapiche meladero/ The Sugar Mill, c. 1890

Oil on canvas

17 1/4 "x 20 1/2"

Rico Museum of Art Collection

The looming permanence of the mill and adjacent structures is contrasted by swaths of verdant plants and trees and a diaphanous blue sky. This peaceful image of rustic life also includes the figure of the “jíbaro”—the rural poor of Puerto Rican lore—at the center of the composition. The work also documents an important moment in the island’s economic history, namely the second phase of technological development in the sugar industry. Here we see a mill operated by oxen, an advance over the “conuco” mills—a rudimentary milling process initially worked by slaves. These would inevitably be displaced by modern factory mills. More on this painting

In 1884, he founded an art school for young women which was later to be known as the Universidad Nacional. In 1871, Spain honored Oller by naming him a member of the Caballeros de la Orden de Carlos III (which translates to Knighthood of the Order of Carlos III), and a year later he became the official painter of the Royal Court of Amadeo I. Oller developed an interest in bringing out the reality of Puerto Rico's landscape, its people, and culture through his works of art. Oller's paintings can be found in museums worldwide, including the Musée d'Orsay in France.

Francisco Manuel Oller  (1833–1917)

La escuela del Maestro Cordero/ The school of Master Cordero, c. 1890-92

Oil on canvas

39 x 62½ (99.1 x 158.8cm)

Ateneo Puertorriqueño, San Juan, Puerto Rico

In this painting, Oller pays homage to the teacher Rafael Cordero, who is seated, in the middle of writing class, looking directly at the viewer. For the creation of this work, it is known that Cordero did not pose for Oller, as it was made after his death. Oller uses a photo taken from a newspaper as a reference. More on this painting

Rafael Cordero Molina ( San Juan , Puerto Rico , 24 of October of 1790 - 5 of July of 1868 ) was a self - taught Puerto Rican providing free education to children of their city regardless of race or social position. He is considered the "Father of Public Education in Puerto Rico."  His parents were craftsman Lucas Cordero and Rita Molina, free mulattoes. He had two older sisters: Gregoria and Celestina. The teacher Rafael Cordero is one of the most important figures of education in Puerto Rico and an icon for the educational system, the history and the culture of the island. More on Rafael Cordero Molina

Francisco Oller

 El Velorio/ The Wake, c. 1893

Mural painting on canvas

8-by-13-foot

Museum of History, Anthropology and Art Collection 

University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus

El Velorio was not seen as the most glamorous but was shown in the Paris Salon in 1895. Oller uses small, visible brush strokes and an emphasis on an accurate depiction of light and mastery of color in its changing qualities in his paintings. 

The painting depicts the wake or, in Puerto Rican Spanish, "baquiné" of a dead child laid on a table covered with flowers. Participants totally ignore the child and instead celebrate with food, drink, games, songs, dancing and prayer. The reason for this is that they believe it is a time for celebration for the child has become an angel and should be properly sent off. All the while the parents are mourning over the loss of their child and some are consoling the mother.  Oller’s painting is considered a Puerto Rican national treasure and is not allowed to leave the Museum of History. 

Francisco Oller

Study for The Wake, c. 1892

Oil on canvas

12 3/4" x 17"

Museo de San Juan Collection

Oller died on May 17, 1917, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was buried at the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in San Juan, Puerto Rico. More on Francisco Oller

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