Eduardo Chicharro Agüera (Madrid 1873-1949) - Elderly woman

Eduardo Chicharro Agüera (Madrid 1873-1949) - Elderly woman
Circa 1920. Oil on canvas. Signed on the left shoulder of the portrayed, “E. Chicharro”; on the back, on the frame, ‘11’.

Measurements: 72.5 x 58.5 cm.

Permission granted by the Spanish State for immediate export to countries of the European Union, and other countries of the world, upon payment of a fee.

The painting represents an elderly woman in front of the viewer. She is wearing a Spanish lace mantilla, which is visible under her coat, both garments in black, and the latter with a wide fur lapel in dark brown. Her head is covered with another small lace shawl, also in black. The brooch she wears on her chest, golden and with rhinestones, together with her earrings, denote a certain social charge of the portrayed.

The painting shows a strong contrast between the clarity that Chicharro imprints on the face and jewelry of the old woman, in contrast to the dark clothing and ocher background of the work. This proposal should be understood as a plea against the absence of color and strength of line that the artist proposed in some of his works during the second decade of the twentieth century.

Eduardo Chicharro y Agüera was born in Madrid (June 18, 1873) in the upper corridor of San Pablo and died in the same Villa y Corte (May 24, 1949). His father Eduardo Chicharro Serrano was a glassmaker, also related to other artisan fields. At the age of 15 he began studying drawing and painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

A disciple of Joaquín Sorolla and teacher of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, he studied in the workshop of the Valencian master, who considered him one of his most gifted disciples. He traveled to Italy in 1900 after winning first place and a scholarship from the Academy ahead of such important painters as Julio Romero de Torres and Fernando Álvarez Sotomayor. Four years later, in 1904, with his work Los amores de Armida y Reinaldo, he won the first medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. Immersed in the artistic environment of the Madrid of his time, he decided to found and preside in 1910 the so-called Association of Painters and Sculptors, from his own studio in Madrid, an association that will create in turn in 1920 the Salón de Otoño, a contest still in force today.

From 1912 to 1925 he directed the Spanish Academy in Rome, replacing Ramón María del Valle Inclán. Between those years, on May 14, 1922, he joined the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando as an academician, with an outstanding speech entitled Science and art of coloring, a message that we believe is represented in the Portrait of an old woman that we present here, with its striking black clothing on a dark monochrome background: “the power of the line is immense, with only the stroke you can represent all the forms of nature (...) color does not have that power and needs the line as a framework on which to found itself”.

The tireless work of the Vilches Salon hosted in 1927 what was his first monographic exhibition entitled “Women”. After this, and when the Second Spanish Republic was declared, he received the position of general inspector of the Schools of Arts and Crafts, which is still in force today. As a culmination of his career, he was appointed General Director of Fine Arts in 1934.

His active participation in numerous national and foreign exhibitions led him to obtain different medals and mentions; the honorary mention in 1897; second medal in 1899; first medals in 1904 and 1908; medal of Honor in 1922; Silver medal in Liege, 1905; Gold medals in Munich, 1905 and 1913; medal in Zaragoza, 1908; medal in Valencia, 1910; medals in Barcelona in 1907 and 1911; medal in Buenos Aires in 1910; medal in Panama in 1916; and Great Gold medal in Berlin in 1914.

Chamber painter with Alfonso XII, he also portrayed Alfonso XIII, King of Spain. Chicharro was Knight of the Legion of Honor, Grand Officer of the Crown of Italy, Grand Cross of Alfonso X the Wise and adopted son of Avila.

Several Spanish and foreign museums keep his paintings. As an anecdotal fact, his work Pygmalion, commissioned by the Spanish government in 1925 for the current World Trade Organization (from GATT), based in the Swiss city of Geneva, came to light in 2007.

He was the teacher of the outstanding Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, of his son Eduardo Chicharro Briones, who in addition to being a painter, wrote treatises on art and poetry, and of the Basque painter Julián de Tellaeche Aldasoro (Bergara 1884 - Lima 1957), among others.

Reference bibliography:

E. M. Aguilera, Eduardo Chicharro: aspectos de su vida, su obra y su arte, Barcelona, Iberia, 1947; J. Francés, Tres pintores madrileños: Leonardo Alenza, Eduardo Chicharro y Gutiérrez Solana, Madrid, Discurso leído el 28 de octubre de 1961 con motivo de su ingreso en la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Magisterio Español, 1961; J. A. Gaya Nuño, La pintura española del siglo XX, Madrid, Ibérico Europea de Ediciones, 1970; J. Contreras y López, Eduardo Chicharro en su centenario, Madrid, 1973; B. de Pantorba, Historia y crítica de las Exposiciones Nacionales de Bellas Artes celebradas en España, Madrid, 1980; C. Reyero y M. Freixa, Pintura y escultura en España 1800-1910, Madrid, Cátedra, 1995; VV. AA., Eduardo Chicharro Agüera, catálogo de la exposición, Torreón de Lozoya, mayo de 1998, Segovia, 1998; Arte para un siglo: colecciones del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Cambio de siglo: 1881-1925, Madrid, Confederación Española de Cajas de Ahorros, 2002; L. Fernández Bastos, Eduardo Chicharro Agüera, en “Diccionario Biográfico Español”, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia.