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

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

15 Works, Today, January 19th is artist Paul Cézanne's day, his story, illustrated #019

Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906)

Detail; Self-portrait, c. 1875

Oil on canvas

Height  : 64.0 cm; Width  : 53.0 cm

Orsay Museum

Paul Cézanne (19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.

Paul Cézanne 1839 – 1906

Christ in Limbo, c. 1867

Fresco

168 × 100 cm

MuseumMusée d'Orsay, Paris

From his grave Christ descends into Hell. He meets a number of lost souls who may at last go to Heaven.

This fresco used to be on a wall in Cézanne's father's house near Aix-en-Provence. It was later transferred to canvas.

Christ in LimboIt is a copy of a 1516 painting by Sebastiano del Piombo, but done in Cézanne's own style. More on this painting

Cézanne's often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of colour and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects. 

Paul Cézanne, (1839–1906)

The Overture to Tannhauser: The Artist's Mother and Sister, c. 1868

Oil on canvas

Height: 57.8 cm (22.7 in) Width: 92.5 cm (36.4 in)

Hermitage Museum 

Paul Cézanne was born on 19 January 1839 in Aix-en-Provence. On 22 February, he was baptized, and became a devout Catholic later in life. His father was the co-founder of a banking firm that prospered throughout the artist's life, affording him financial security that was unavailable to most of his contemporaries and eventually resulting in a large inheritance.

Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906)

Paul Alexis Reading a Manuscript to Zola, from 1869 until 1870

Oil on canvas

Height: 130 cm (51.1 in); Width: 160 cm (62.9 in)

São Paulo Museum of Art 

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism.According to major Zola scholar and biographer Henri Mitterand, "Naturalism contributes something more than realism: the attention brought to bear on the most lush and opulent aspects of people and the natural world. The realist writer reproduces the object's image impersonally, while the naturalist writer is an artist of temperament." He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse…! Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902. More on Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola

In 1852 Cézanne entered the Collège Bourbon in Aix, where he became friends with Émile Zola, as well as Baptistin Baille—three friends who came to be known as "Les Trois Inséparables" (The Three Inseparables). He stayed there for six years. In 1857, he began attending the Free Municipal School of Drawing in Aix, where he studied drawing under Joseph Gibert, a Spanish monk. From 1858 to 1861, complying with his father's wishes, Cézanne attended the law school of the University of Aix, while also receiving drawing lessons.

Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906)

Self-portrait, c. 1875

Oil on canvas

Height  : 64.0 cm; Width  : 53.0 cm

Orsay Museum

Going against the objections of his banker father, he committed himself to pursue his artistic development and left Aix for Paris in 1861. He was strongly encouraged to make this decision by Zola, who was already living in the capital at the time. Eventually, his father reconciled with Cézanne and supported his choice of career. Cézanne later received an inheritance of 400,000 francs from his father, which rid him of all financial worries.

Camille Pissarro

Portrait of Paul Cezanne, c. 1874

Oil, canvas

73 x 59.7 cm

Location: Private Collection

Camille Pissarro (10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.

In 1873 he helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the "pivotal" figure in holding the group together and encouraging the other members. Art historian John Rewald called Pissarro the "dean of the Impressionist painters", not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also "by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality".  More on Camille Pissarro

In Paris, Cézanne met the Impressionist Camille Pissarro. Initially the friendship formed in the mid-1860s between Pissarro and Cézanne was that of master and disciple, in which Pissarro exerted a formative influence on the younger artist. 

Camille Pissarro

The street of Hermitage, Pontoise, c. 1874

Oil on canvas

40.4 x 34.8 cm

Private Collection

We can see in this painting by Pissarro how Pissarro, influenced by Cézanne, painted a bit like him by accentuating the structure of the motif - quite banal in itself - by means of more lines. marked and sharper color contrast.

Over the course of the following decade their landscape painting excursions together, in Louveciennes and Pontoise, led to a collaborative working relationship between equals.

Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906)

Dans le parc de Château Noir, between 1898 and 1900

Oil on canvas

92 x 73 cm

Musée de l'Orangerie, Place de la Concorde in Paris

We can see an example of this collaboration with Cezanne's painting "La Côte des Boeufs, Pontoise" from 1877, where he treats the same theme as Pissarro, but in a totally different way which prefigures already the Provencal landscapes of the "Parc du Château Noir" (around 1900).

Camille Pissarro  (1830–1903)

The Côte des Bœufs, Pontoise, c. 1877

Oil on canvas

Height: 114.9 cm (45.2 in); Width: 87.6 cm (34.4 in)

National Gallery, Central London

In Cézanne's mature work there is the development of a solidified, almost architectural style of painting. Throughout his life he struggled to develop an authentic observation of the seen world by the most accurate method of representing it in paint that he could find. To this end, he structurally ordered whatever he perceived into simple forms and colour planes. 

Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906)

The Pond, circa 1877

Oil on canvas

Height: 470 mm (18.50 in); Width: 562 mm (22.12 in)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Cézanne was interested in the simplification of naturally occurring forms to their geometric essentials. He wanted to "treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere and the cone". Additionally, Cézanne's desire to capture the truth of perception. Simultaneous visual perceptions of the same phenomena to provide the viewer with an aesthetic experience of depth. His interest in new ways of modelling space and volume derived from the stereoscopy obsession of his era.

Cézanne's paintings were shown in the first exhibition of the Salon des Refusés in 1863, which displayed works not accepted by the jury of the official Paris Salon. The Salon rejected Cézanne's submissions every year from 1864 to 1869. He continued to submit works to the Salon until 1882. In that year, through the intervention of fellow artist Antoine Guillemet, he exhibited Portrait de M. L. A., The Artist's Father, Reading "L'Événement", 1866, .his first and last successful submission to the Salon.

Listing from the official catalogue of the Salon of 1882

Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906)

The Artist's Father, Reading "L'Événement," c. 1866

Oil on canvas

Height: 198.5 cm (78.1 in); Width: 119.3 cm (46.9 in)

National Gallery, Washington DC

Before 1895 Cézanne exhibited twice with the Impressionists. In later years a few individual paintings were shown at various venues, until 1895, when the Parisian dealer, Ambroise Vollard, gave the artist his first solo exhibition. Despite the increasing public recognition and financial success, Cézanne chose to work in increasing artistic isolation, usually painting in the south of France, in his beloved Provence, far from Paris.

Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906)

Still life with dresser, c.1883 - 87

Oil on canvas

Height: 73.3 cm (28.8 in); Width: 92.2 cm (36.2 in)

Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Cézanne has painted still lifes since the 1860s and in the course of his life created a large, important group of works in this genre. With him, as with other corresponding painters, among them the Dutch of the 17th and French of the 18th and 19th centuries as important forerunners, it is not 'dead nature' (nature morte), but really the 'quiet life' that governs the The content of such images. More on this painting

Paul Cézanne

Madame Cézanne in a Striped Dress, c. 1885-6

Oil on canvas

H x w mm: 619 x 511

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)

The railway breakthrough, around 1870

Oil on canvas

80.4 x 129.4 cm

Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Cézanne found the central motif of the picture near her father's country house "Jas de Bouffan". However, he did not see the railway breakthrough as a theme of the industrial revolution, rather it is the connection between the house as the dwelling of man and the mountain as the place of the deity that is cut through here. This significant content is particularly evident from. More on this painting

Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)

Bathers, c. 1874–75

Oil on canvas

15 x 18 1/8 in. (38.1 x 46 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of Cézanne’s first paintings of bathers, a subject that engaged him for the rest of his career. Although fascinated by the nude human figure, the artist worked slowly and was uncomfortable with female models, so he derived such scenes from his imagination and his rich knowledge of classical and Renaissance art. The rhythmic poses of the women, displaying their bodies from different angles, recur, with variations, in Cézanne’s later work. However, he soon tempered the bright, high-keyed palette, favored by his Impressionist colleagues. More on this painting

He concentrated on still lifes, portraits, landscapes and studies of bathers. For the last, Cézanne was compelled to design from his imagination, due to a lack of available nude models. Like the landscapes, his portraits were drawn from that which was familiar, so that not only his wife and son but local peasants, children and his art dealer served as subjects.

Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906)

Mont Sainte-Victoire, c. 1904

Oil on canvas

Height: 70 cm (27.5 in); Width: 92 cm (36.2 in)

Philadelphia Museum

Cézanne's paintings were not well received among the petty bourgeoisie of Aix. In 1903 Henri Rochefort visited the auction of paintings that had been in Zola's possession and published on 9 March 1903 in L'Intransigeant a highly critical article entitled "Love for the Ugly". Rochefort describes how spectators had supposedly experienced laughing fits, when seeing the paintings of "an ultra-impressionist named Cézanne". The public in Aix was outraged, and for many days, copies of L'Intransigeant appeared on Cézanne's door-mat with messages asking him to leave the town "he was dishonouring".

Cézanne died on 22 October 1906 of pneumonia and was buried at the Saint-Pierre Cemetery in his hometown of Aix-en-Provence. More on Paul Cézanne

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.