José Benlliure Y Gil (1855-1937) - Nude In The Workshop, Roma 1897

José Benlliure Y Gil (1855-1937)
Nude in the Workshop, Roma 1897
Oil on panel
40 x 19 cm
58 x 37 cm with its frame
Signed located and dated "J Benlliure, Roma 1897" lower left

José Benlliure y Gil , born in Valencia on October 1, 1855 and died in the same city on April 5, 1937, is a Spanish painter. José Benlliure y Gil, born in the Cabañal-Cañamelar neighborhood of Valencia, belonged to a family of artists. His father Juan Antonio was a decorative painter, specializing in ornamental painting, with floral and trompe l'oeil elements. From his mother, Angela Gil, José Benlliure took his second last name. His son also, José Benlliure Ortiz (1884-1916) was a painter. Upon the early death of his son, José donated several works to the “Saint Pius V” Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia. His nephew was the architect, sculptor and painter José Luis Benlliure López de Arana, who was son of the sculptor Mariano Benlliure, brother of José; another brother of José and Mariano, Juan Antonio Benlliure y Gil, was a painter. After his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia, José Benlliure collaborated with his father and completed his artistic training in the studio of the painter Francisco Domingo y Marqués. From the year 1875 he sent his works to the Madrid Exhibition. At the Paris Salon he exhibited genre paintings, on Spanish subjects and paintings of a religious nature, in which he expressed his deep adherence to Christianity. He was seduced by Symbolism and his painting became more and more diaphanous, poetic, almost a surrealist dream, which transposed the concrete image into an abstract reality. Moving to Rome, he became a point of reference for the colony of Spanish artists. He married Maria Ortiz in 1880 and his son was born in Rome. From 1903 to 1913 he was a professor at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. The King of Spain, Amédée I, commissioned the portrait of his son Emmanuel-Philibert of Savoy, who had become Infante of Spain and Prince of Asturias. He held a chair at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Ferdinand (Madrid), at the Accademia di San Luca (Rome), at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos (Valencia), at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera (Milan) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.