Lot 186: Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor El Ferrol 1875-Madrid 1960 , Orando a la Dolorosa (Praying to the Dolorosa) oil on canvasboard

signed Sotomayor l.l. oil on canvasboard

100 by 80cm., 39¼ by 31½in.

Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza, Fernando A. de Sotomayor, 2004, p. 221, no. 74, illustrated

A gift from the artist to the present owners

PROPERTY FROM A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Painted circa 1949, the present work exemplifies Sotomayor's paintings of pious worship in his native Galicia. A pupil of the history painter and portraitist, Manuel Domínguez y Sánchez, Sotomayor studied in Madrid at the San Fernando Academy. At the age of 24 he travelled to Rome, France and Holland. With a gathering reputation as a young artist of note, on a visit to his native Galicia in 1905 his interest in the region was re-awakened. Thereafter his work centred on the essential truths to be found in the local communities, the moral strength of the people with whom he came into contact and the beauty of the local landscape. In 1907 he travelled to Chile where he became director of the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Santiago, a post that he retained until 1911. In 1929 he was appointed Director of the Prado, and thereafter Director of the Real Academia de San Fernando, Madrid.