6 FAMOUS Spanish painters and their works

There are many Spanish painters who have crossed borders geographic locations and have become renowned figures throughout the world, being referents and influences for artists of all times. Some painters who have even inspired artistic currents and many of whose works are already universally famous. In this unProfesor.com lesson we offer you a selection of the Spanish famous painters you should know.

Index

1. Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), one of the great famous Spanish painters
2. Francisco Goya (1746-1828)
3. Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923)
4. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
5. John Gray (1887-1927)
6. Joan Miró (1893-1983)
7. Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Velazquez, key figure of spanish baroque, he is also one of the great masters of universal painting and the best spanish painter of all time. Recognized by avant-garde painters as an inspiration and "painter of painters", as Manet recognized during his visit to the Prado Museum in 1865.

One of the great achievements of Velázquez is to have been able to have a historical awareness of his painting and of himself, establishing a critical sense in his paintings and portraits. Thus his work Las Meninas, has been the subject of multiple interpretations by other artists. Goya, Monet, Dalí, Picasso, Saura, Hamilton, Sargent or the Grupo Crónica are some of the artists who made their own version of the work.

Velázquez entered Francisco Pacheco's workshop in Seville, beginning his career at an early age. In his early years he painted religious themes and still lifes, influenced by other painters of the time such as Caravaggio. His consecration was as court painter to Philip IV, period during which he made numerous portraits, paintings with religious themes and mythological inspiration. Along with him we must highlight Juana Pacheco (1602-1660), his wife and possible author of some of those attributed to Velázquez or Francisco Pacheco, his father.

Velázquez's most important works

• The Old Woman Frying Eggs (1618)
• The Water Carrier of Seville (1620)
• The Triumph of Bacchus or The Drunkards (1628)
• Christ Crucified (1632), The Surrender of Breda (1634)
• The Portrait of Innocent X (1650)
• Venus of the Mirror (1647)
• Infanta Margarita Teresa in Blue (1659)
• The Fable of Arachne (1657)
• The family of Felipe IV or Las Meninas (1656)

Another of the famous Spanish painters and one of the most important in the history of universal art is Francisco de Goya. Painter and engraver, he is considered one of the great precursors of the artistic avant-garde of the early twentieth century such as impressionism, expressionism and surrealism. In his time he went through several styles, from Rococo to Neoclassicism and Pre-Romanticism.

Although he began training him at a young age, it took Goya a while to rise into the art world. Starting in 1770, and after a trip to Rome to learn about the work of the great painters of his time, Goya began working as a painter of sketches for court tapestries. But he won't be until the 80's when he became one of the painters of reference among high society in Madrid, he became a permanent painter for Carlos III and chamber painter of Carlos IV.

His work is iconic and prolific, demonstrating his versatility in the variety of his work, from mural paintings to tapestry cartoons, engravings, portraits, still lifes and in series such as the Black paints.

Goya's most important works

1. The Coven (1798)
2. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799)
3. The Naked Maja (1800)
4. The Clothed Maja (1800 – 1808)
5. Self Portrait (1815)
6. The Colossus (1808 – 1812)
7. The execution of May 3 (1808 – 1812)
8. Clubbing duel (1819 – 1823)
9. Saturn devouring his son (1819 – 1823)
10. Two old men eating soup (1819 – 1823)

Within this list of famous Spanish painters also stands out Joaquin Sorolla. He is one of the most prominent figures in the impressionism Spanish, standing out for his great talent and the success achieved by his paintings in Europe and the United States.

He began painting at a very young age, winning his first medal at the Valencia Regional Exhibition of 1883. On his trips to Rome and Paris, he surrendered to classical and Renaissance art, but, above all, to Impressionism.. The taste of him for paint outdoors and reflect costumbrista scenes and landscapes of the Mediterranean is seen in his more than 2,200 works. A work that aroused admiration inside and outside of Spain.

Sorolla's most important works

• Mother (1895)
• Woman's Nude (1902)
• Self Portrait (1904)
• The White Boat (1905)
• Running down the beach (1908)
• Children in the sea, Valencia beach (1908)
• Walk along the beach (1909)
• The Sloop (1909)
• Children on the beach (1910)

picasso, the painter and sculptor from Malaga is an artist of universal renown, owner of a very prolific work and one of the founders and great representatives of cubism. An artist who also began his journey as a child, creating his first oil painting at the age of 8.

After studying at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts and at the Llotja School, he traveled to Paris, the city where he chose to continue his artistic career, settling in 1914 in the Montmartre neighborhood. In 1908 he discovers Braque, who was experimenting with a new style similar to his own, Cubism.

Picasso developed his style apart from Braque and according to Cézanne's ideas, who interpreted reality from geometric volumes. Thus, Picasso became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, besides one of the most productive. In addition, this great painter was evolving through different styles. The stages of it goes from the blue period to the pink, the black or the cubism.

Picasso's most important works

• The Life (1903)
• Boy with a Pipe (1905)
• Self Portrait (1907)
• The Ladies of Avignon (1907)
• The Three Musicians (1921)
• The Dream (1932)
• Girl in front of a mirror (1932)
• Nudes, Green Leaves, and Busts (1932)
• Guernica (1937)
• Portrait of Dora Maar (1937)

Another famous Spanish painter is José Victoriano González-Pérez, better known as John Gray. A painter and illustrator who lived in Paris from a very young age, developing most of his works there and becoming one of the greatest figures of cubism.

Juan Gris is considered a great master of cubism, being the technique of paper colle his great contribution to the movement. A technique that consists of pasting newspaper, paper or cardboard clippings on the canvas and combining them with pigment.

Most important works of Juan Gris

• Portrait of Picasso (1912)
• The Clock (1912)
• Violin and Guitar (1913)

Joan Miro he is one of the great teachers of surrealism, being a prolific painter, sculptor, engraver and potter. After moving to Paris, Miró was drawn to abstract art, the dreamlike and the subconscious, developing his own style in which simple geometric shapes and colors prevail primary.

Back in Spain, Miró settled in Palma de Mallorca to focus more on works of sculpture and ceramics. His iconic, radical, non-conformist and imaginative style received international recognition.

Most important works of Joan Miró

• The farm (1920-1921)
• Harlequin Carnival (1924-1925)
• Dog Barking at the Moon (1926)
• Blue II (1961)
• Lunar bird (Moonbird) (1966)
• Woman and Bird (1982)

Salvador Dali He embodied the figure of genius like no other, reaching enormous popularity and prestige for his personal and eccentric style. A versatile artist that he became one of the highest representatives of the surrealism. creator of the paranoid-critical method, transferring his personal dream universe to the canvas with a great mastery of technique.

Dalí was also a versatile artist, being a great painter, sculptor, engraver and writer. The artist demonstrated his great talent as a child, studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. At the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid he befriended Luis Bunuel and Federico Garcia Lorca, among other intellectuals of the time.

He later settled in Paris, where he was associated with Picasso and Miró, joining the surrealist movement of André Breton there, being expelled years later. He was the creator of the paranoid-critical method, influencing other artists of the time.

Dalí's most important works

1. The Persistence of Memory (1931)
2. Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951)
3. Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before waking up (1944)
4. Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (1936)
5. The Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937)
6. The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1946)
7. The Great Masturbator (1929)
8. Birth of a Divinity (1960)
9. Millet's Architectural Angelus (1933)
10. The invisible man (1929-1933)

If you want to read more articles similar to famous spanish painters, we recommend that you enter our category of History.

• GIBSON, Ian. Dalí young, Dalí great. Pocket B, 2019.
• GONZALEZ, Carlos; MARTÍ, Montse. Spanish painters in Paris (1850-1900). Tusquets, 1989.
• JUSTI, Carl. Velázquez and his century. AKAL editions, 1999.
• MIRÓ, Joan, et al. Joan Miro. Polygraph, 1970.
• PORTUS, Javier; PEREZ, Javier Portús. The concept of Spanish painting: history of a problem. Editorial Verbum, 2012.
• Tomlinson, Janis A. Francisco Goya y Lucientes, 1746-1828. London: Phaidon, 1994.
• WALTHER, Ingo F.; PICASSO, Paul. Picasso. Taschen, 2000.