Eugenio Hermoso Martínez (Spanish, 1883 - 1963).
Eugenio Hermoso was born in the town of Fregenal de la Sierra in Badajoz, Spain. He received a grant from the government of Badajoz which enabled him to study in Seville, at the 'Escuela de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría' (School of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel of Hungary). Here he was taught by other Spanish painters such as Gonzalo Bilbao and José Jiménez Aranda.
Following this, Eugenio Hermoso moved to Madrid in 1901 in order to study at the 'Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando' (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando). To practise his art, Hermoso often went to the Prado Museum in order to copy the paintings of the Spanish masters.
From 1905 to 1906, Eugenio travelled to Paris where he came into contact with the vanguardist artists. In this year he also visited Belgium and many important cities in Italy. On his travels he also met many other Impressionist painters and also came to admire the Egyptian sarcophagi from the Roman period. Eugenio Hermoso also travelled around England, staying for a brief time in Hoylake which was then part of the county of Cheshire. Hermoso then held an exhibition in London in 1912.
After this, Hermoso won joint First Prize for National Fine Arts in Spain with Joaquím Mir and Valentín de Zubiaurre in the year of 1917. In 1918, Hermoso decided to settle permanently in Madrid. Tragically during this time, Eugenio's wife went insane and was committed to a psychiatric hospital.
His first great solo exhibition was held in Madrid in 1922 at the 'Salón del Museo de Arte Moderno' (Salon of the Museum of Modern Art). This exhibition was hugely successful as Eugenio Hermoso received many new commissions as well as selling many of his paintings. Hermoso's fame grew abroad as well and from 1934, Eugenio Hermoso toured Latin America, organzing exhibitions in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
In 1941, Eugenio Hermoso was named an official Academic of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and then a professor at the 'Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes' (Superior School of Fine Arts). As an academic, Eugenio Hermoso dedicated his research into producing a study of the paintings of Zurbarán, a Spanish painter from the Spanish Golden Age. This work, among many of his other academic works, has become an essential piece of reading for any student of Spanish painting.
Eugenio Hermoso died in 1963 at the age of eighty.
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