MARTÍN RICO Y ORTEGA PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY

MARTÍN RICO Y ORTEGA

Spanish, 1833–1908

BIOGRAPHY
Martín Rico y Ortega "studied under the engraver Castelló and then under the painters Pérez Villaamil (at the Real Academia de San Fernando, in Madrid), and Juan Antonio de Ribera and Federico de Madrazo. He was granted a study bursary in 1861 and the following year went to Paris where he frequented Charles Daubigny and the painters of the Barbizon School. He also spent time in Brittany and Switzerland, returning to Spain during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. In 1875 he visited Belgium and England and, from the late 1860s onwards, spent most of his summers in Venice - the city becoming a great source of inspiration to the artist.

"Ortega exhibited in Madrid in 1858 and 1860; in Paris from 1864 at the Paris Salon and then at the Salon des Artistes Français; he was awarded a silver medal in 1866, a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 and a silver medal at the exhibition of 1889. He was also made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1878 and was awarded the Cross of the Légion d'Honneur. During his time in France, the banks of the rivers Seine, Oise and Marne became an important source of inspiration to the artist. A friend of Charles Daubigny, he was one of the first Spanish painters to practice open-air painting and his evident passion for light earned him the name of the 'sunny Daubigny' from French art critics. On his return to Spain, he continued to develop his style under Fortuny, moving towards a more colorful, iridescent and meticulous manner. He painted a number of canvases but mainly watercolors, which are really drawings illuminated by color. During the last 20 years of his life he concentrated almost exclusively on scenes of Venice" (Benezit, Dictionary of Artists, Gründ, 2006, vol. 11, pp. 1035-6).

Museum Collections:
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH
Hispanic Society of America Museum and Library, New York, NY
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain
Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, Spain
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD

Mark Murray Fine Paintings is a New York gallery specializing in buying and selling 19th century and early 20th century artwork.

Please contact us if you are interested in selling your Martín Rico y Ortega paintings or other artwork from the 19th century and early 20th century.