Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (24 July 1841 – 15 September 1920) was a Spanish painter from the Madrazo family of artists who worked in the Realistic style, although his later work shows signs of Rococo and Japanese influence. He was known primarily for his genre paintings and portraits. His grandfather was José de Madrazo, his father was the portrait painter Federico de Madrazo and his brother was Ricardo de Madrazo.
Biography
He was born in Rome[1] into a family of artists with a noble background. His grandfather was José de Madrazo, the painter and former Director of the Museo del Prado; his father was Federico de Madrazo, also a painter; his uncles were Luis de Madrazo, a painter, Pedro de Madrazo, an art critic and Juan de Madrazo, an architect; while his brother was Ricardo de Madrazo, also a painter.[2] His maternal grandfather was Tadeusz Kuntze, a Polish painter. The Madrazo family have been described as one of the most important painting dynasties, who literally dominated 19th-century painting in Spain.[3]
He had his first exhibition that same year and often visited New York to sell his paintings. Among his clients there were the Vanderbilt family and Alexander Turney Stewart.[5] He rarely had exhibitions in Spain. In 1882 he, Stevens, Giuseppe de Nittis and Georges Petit established an "International Painting Exhibition" to promote foreign artists living in Paris.[5]
After 1862, he lived in Paris for much of his life. In the late 1860s, he spent some time in Rome with his brother, working in the studios of Mariano Fortuny, who had married their sister Cecilia. During the Franco-Prussian War, he lived in Granada. His wife died during childbirth in 1874, the same year as his brother-in-law, Fortuny.
In 1894, he donated a collection of works by Francisco de Goya that he had acquired in 1869 to the Museo del Prado.[4] In 1914, he moved to Versailles, where he died six years later. His son, Federico de Madrazo y Ochoa (known as "Coco") also became a notable painter.
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