19th Century Spanish

Born in Madrid on 9 February 1817, Lucas Velázquez began his art education at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where he was taught by José de Madrazo y Agudo (1781-1859), the first in the long line of prestigious painters in the Madrazo family. Disillusioned with the academicism of official education, Lucas Velázquez furthered his training with visits to the Prado, where he studied the works by the great masters of Spanish painting, focusing particularly on Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), whose oeuvre would play a key role in shaping his style.

His admiration for Goya led him to develop a language suffused with the purest romantic spirit. Lucas Velázquez inherited Goya’s so-called veta brava (wild streak), defined by fluid and expressive brushwork, as well as his folk and genre imaginary, which would grant him resounding success throughout his life. The large number of commissions he received allowed him to live comfortably and to embark on frequent journeys that would help to define his career.

In 1852 the artist travelled to Paris for the first time. There he had an opportunity to see the work of Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), which would exert a significant influence on him. One year later he separated from his first wife and went to live with Francisca Villaamil. The couple had four children, one of whom, Eugenio Lucas Villaamil (1858-1919), also went on to become a painter and a staunch follower of his father’s style. In fact, their works are so similar that have been often been wrongly attributed to one another, leading to problems in correctly identifying authorship.

In the 1860s he returned to Paris and travelled through Italy and Switzerland. Those sojourns allowed him to imbibe the then prevailing in Europe.

He had many very important patrons throughout his life, including the Marquis of Salamanca, and Queen Isabella II appointed him Court Painter and conferred him the title of Knight of the . He died in Madrid on 11 September 1870.