VICENTE PALMAROLI GONZÁLEZ (Zarzalejo, Madrid,... Lot 44

VICENTE PALMAROLI GONZÁLEZ (Zarzalejo, Madrid, 1834 - Madrid, 1896). "Interior of a church". Oil on panel. Signed, dated and dedicated in the lower left area. Size: 31,5 x 19 cm; 42,5 x 33,5 cm (frame). Palmaroli was a vigorous portraitist, who knew how to delve into the psychology of the character and to recreate himself in the minute details of the clothing. With a virtuoso brushstroke, he expressed the plasticity of the clothes and the brilliance of the adolescent flesh tones with veristic language. The son of an Italian lithographer, Palmaroli entered the School of Fine Arts at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid in 1848. A few years later, in 1853, he succeeded his father in the post of lithographer at the Museo del Prado, created especially for him by the king consort Francisco de Asís with the support of José de Madrazo. In 1857 this post enabled him to go to Italy to further his training, accompanied by Eduardo Rosales and Luis Álvarez Catalá. On his return he submitted two paintings executed during his trip to the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1862, which were awarded second and first medals. From his earliest works, Palmaroli began to move away from the official aesthetic of his time, evolving towards much more intimate, refined plastic works inspired by contemporary and even everyday motifs. He returned to Italy in 1863 and stayed there for three years, during which time he painted "The Sermon in the Sistine Chapel" (Caja Duero, Salamanca), a work of enormous success which won him the first medal at the National Exhibition of 1866 and very good reviews in Paris. During this period of splendour and pictorial maturity he also painted numerous portraits, including that of the Infanta Isabel de Borbón (Royal Palace, Madrid). Once he settled in Madrid again, in 1871 he obtained his third first-class medal at the National Academy, and the following year he was appointed a member of the San Fernando Academy. In 1873 Palmaroli settled in Paris, where he worked extensively as a painter of tableautins for ten years, at the end of which he was called to Rome as director of the Rome Academy. In the Italian capital he continued with the same genre of anecdotal inspiration until 1894, when he was appointed director of the Museo del Prado, a post he held until 1896. Towards the end of his life, his painting cautiously approached symbolism in such significant works as his Martyrdom of Saint Christina (Prado, on deposit in Jaen). Palmaroli was also the teacher of prominent painters such as Carlota Rosales, daughter of Eduardo Rosales, Casimiro Sainz, Eduardo León Garrido and Domingo Muñoz Cuesta, among others. Vicente Palmaroli is currently represented in the Prado Museum, the Malaga Municipal Museum, the museums of Jaén, L'Empordà, Granada and La Coruña, the Ministry of Public Works and the Royal Theatre in Madrid, the Royal Academy of San Fernando and the Romantic Museum in Madrid, among others.