Friday, January 18, 2019

Naranjas y otras frutas - paintings by Rafael Romero Barros


Bodegón de naranjas,1863.
Bodegón de uvas, circa 1862.
Un ramo de naranjas, 1861.
Bodegón de granadas, date unknown.
Naranja abierta y azahar, 1895.

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Rafael Romero Barros (30 May 1832, Moguer - 2 December 1895, Córdoba), Spanish painter. Born into a humble working-class family, when he was only a few months old, his parents moved to Seville to find employment. At the age of twelve, he began to study at the Universidad Literaria de Sevilla, where he showed talent as a writer, producing works on art and literature. It was also there that he had his first art lessons and became serious about an artistic career. In 1862, he moved to Córdoba to manage the Museo Provincial de Pintura. Over the next few years, he founded the Escuela de Música and the Escuela Provincial de Bellas Artes. He also organized and directed the Museo Arqueológico y Etnológico de Córdoba, while remaining active as an author, contributing prolifically to the local newspapers and magazines. In addition to his cultural work, he was a lifetime member of the Asociación de Obreros Cordobeses, a labor union, where he served as Secretary. Perhaps equally significant, was his work as an art restorer. And his interest in archaeology naturally led him to work for preservation as well as restoration; he was especially concerned about works of Arab and Jewish origin, which were being ignored or vandalized.

His youngest son was the painter Julio Romero de Torres, and his other two sons, Rafael and Enrique, also became painters of some note.




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