Review of “More than a History Painter” an Exhibition on Francisco Pradilla, Sorolla’s Teacher & Friend

When Joaquín Sorolla arrived in Rome, aged 21 and triumphant from having won a major prize the Exposición Nacional — the Spanish equivalent of the Paris Salon — he was greeted by a new teacher: Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz (Zaragoza, 1848 - Madrid, 1921), Director of the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome. Pradilla was the most famous Spanish painter of his era. Nearly twenty years Sorolla’s senior, Pradilla was also orphaned, had come from the Spanish provinces, surpassed more privileged contemporaries, then achieved national fame. According to Sorolla:

"Ever since I began to paint, my obsession has been to destroy all conventionality. How difficult it has been for me to do so!... When I arrived in Rome, Pradilla received me and took me in. I had to learn to use —  and he knew just how to teach me — his unquestioning love for the beauty of line... I needed a governor, a concept of quietude, a way of reasoning that would give me a sense of equilibrium. All of this I found in Pradilla, who tempered and confronted my rebellious impetuosity in those days. (Source: Rodolfo Gil. Joaquín Sorolla. Madrid: Saénz de Jubera Hermanos-Editores, 1913, 25-30.)"

Sorolla’s fame quickly overshadowed that of his teacher, who is little remembered now, except for his monumental history paintings; and, even then, Pradilla is largely only seen in Spain, where his images — often uncredited — are used as illustrations for history magazines and documentaries. That is why the new exhibition, “Pradilla, Más que pinto de historia” (“Pradilla, More than a History Painter”), now on view at the Museo de Historia de Madrid, is such a landmark event. (Click here to see the official page.)

Having now seen the exhibition twice, I have good new and bad news:

Good News

There are more than 70 works, including major works from each of Pradilla’s very different kinds of output (e.g. history painting, genre scenes, landscapes, watercolors, portraits), including several of his major works with accompanying studies. More good news: there is a remarkable catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, with excellent photos of the works, many of which come from private collections — and are therefore little seen — and which were restored for the event.

Not So Good News

No photos are allowed in the exhibition, and there is no online version where the works can be seen. Furthermore, currently the catalogue the catalogue is only available in person. (I had to pay with cash and wait while the volunteer — a well meaning woman in her 80s — carefully counted my change than then went to a back room to fetch "the only copy [she] had sold in three days."  Seriously, this is why I should have invested in a high-end spy lapel camera.)

The exhibition begins with studies for Pradilla’s most famous painting, Juana la Loca (1878), depicting a romanticized version daughter of Isabel and Ferdinand, as she accompanied the casket of her husband, while heavily pregnant, on a several-hundred kilometer journey in midwinter to the burial site. (The original painting is at the Prado; but, the exhibition had two wonderful oil studies on view.) For the Spanish, it was a work laden with meaning — a reminder of the own countries unfair characterization having been wed to continental Europe and subsequently deemed mad. It was hailed as a masterpiece nationally, and then sent to France for the Universal Exhibition (i.e. World’s Fair) of 1878, where it won the Gold Medal — the highest award any European artist could hope to achieve. One French critic exclaimed “Velázquez is alive in Spain, and his name is Pradilla!” (A compliment Pradilla, who did master copies of Velázquez’s work perhaps more than any other artist of the nineteenth century, must have taken as the highest praise.) Subsequently, Pradilla was given a series of high-profile government postings, first as Director of the Museo Nacional de Prado, then as the Director of the Real Academia Española de Bellas Artes in Rome, the elite school for Spanish painters in the Holy City.

Of course, Pradilla’s success meant that, for the rest of his career, demand for historical romances threatening to take over the entirety of his oeuvre; but, despite painting a subsequent series of remarkable history painting that rivaled Juana la Loca, Pradilla painted several different kinds of works in a variety of genres and media that defies simple categorization. That is the aim and great success of this exhibition: to show Pradilla’s remarkable breadth and depth as an artist

Like many turn-of-the century artists, Pradilla could not survive on government commissions alone, and took up portrait painting for the upper classes. These portraits, though not numerous, demonstrate Pradilla could perform at the skill level and in the taste of the most in-demand, French-inspired Spanish artists of the era, namely Raimundo de Madrazo and Joaquín Sorolla.

Although not noted explicitly in the exhibition, the inclusion of the work, Niebla de Primavera (1907), shows Pradilla’s admiration for Antoine Auguste Ernest Hebert’s (1817-1908) work La Mal’aria (1848-50, Musée d’Orsay, Paris); considered by many contemporary artists — and the critic Gauthier — to be the origin of Naturalism. (See the painting here.) Pradilla certainly knew the work, and the lack of discussion shows how much is still to be known about how much Pradilla was influenced by nineteenth-century French painting. (This is often the case with Pradilla and any other artist considered a national treasure: true originals and, therefore, above any international cross-pollinations that may potentially dilute the national character they come to represent.)

In the nineteenth-century, whether an artist was French, German, English, or Spanish, there seems to have been a clear demarcation between watercolorists and oil painters. They formed rival societies, held separate gatherings, and gave different awards. Pradilla, known for his monumental, multi-figural oil paintings, seemed to engage almost as frequently with watercolors, and with no less ambition and in subjects ranging from landscape to genre scenes to portraiture. The exhibition catalogue describes these works as, “in much demand” among Spanish connoisseurs; however, it is hard to imagine that these works — done in a less forgiving medium than oil painting, yet demanding similar time and attention — would have commanded pound for pound rewards in the market. It seems, at least to me, that Pradilla’s watercolors, were not driven by market demands. Rather, given the character of the worlk — often lacking in narrative and featuring downright unlovable characters — Pradilla was driven by personal or artistic concerns. Watercolors may be the purest expression of Pradilla’s artistic interests.

There was a period in Pradilla’s career, after graduation from the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid) and before achieving fame, where he was poor and married, with no serious prospects. So, he moved to the northwest of Spain, to the poor region of Galicia, and became a newspaper artist. There, week after week he churned out small an impressive array of small, multi-figural oil paintings of contemporary people for publishers that would turn those images into black-and-white steel engravings. The work must have been thankless. Yet, it is clear that such work made Pradilla a quick study — he painted Juana la Loca in less than six months — and it made him a master of composition. The exhibition featured a few examples of these small works, which always leave me wondering why he would spend so much time doing small works with such detail. (Doesn’t it take just as much time to do them in a size that is two or three times as large?!) In any case, it is my thesis that this speed, may have been observed and absorbed, in some measure, by his student Sorolla, also famed for his quick brushwork.

Another aspect of Pradilla’s output is the variety of choices he makes. He can been the consummate classicist with an academic adherence to placing figures in balanced poses, lighting, and carefully arranged color pallets that drive a viewer from one end of the work to another. Yet, as in the work above, Pradilla almost paints with the eye of a contemporary camera, cutting figures from the frame, showing extreme diagonals that threaten overall composition, and restricted palette that makes the work done by a completely different artist. And, it was done in late his 60s.

There is a quote in the catalogue from a contemporary journalist, accompanying Pradilla on a trip to Germany, where some of his works were on view and visited by Adolf von Menzel (German, 1815 - 1905), then universally recognized as one of the greatest draughtsmen and art instructors in Europe. It reads:

Adolph von Menzel was there one day absorbed in contemplation, with true ecstasy, a very small work by Pradilla — full of very small and very beautiful figures. After a good amount of time he said: “It is impossible! We spend entire years trying to paint like this and Pradilla does it in an instant and 100 times better!” (Source: “Pradilla en Alemania,” El Correo de Gerona: January 4, 1897)

Anyone who sees this exhibition would feel the same. Pradilla was a giant, who taught giants.