Martín Rico

Martín Rico y Ortega was a Spanish painter of landscapes and cityscapes.

Rico was one of the most important artists of the second half of the nineteenth century in his native country, and enjoyed wide international recognition as well, especially in France and the United States. From his earliest works painted in the mountainous countryside outside of Madrid to the later works he painted in Paris and Venice, throughout his life Rico stayed true to his love of painting en plein-air, despite his evolving artistic style.

Rico was born in El Escorial, Madrid, and received his earliest formal training at the city's Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, where he studied under Jenaro Pérez Villaamil, the Academy's first professor of landscape painting. Under the tutelage of Pérez Villaamil, Rico's earliest works show him influenced by Romanticism, the style for which his teacher was known. In 1860, having been awarded a government-sponsored scholarship, Rico moved to Paris to continue his studies.

Once in France, Rico looked to the artists of the Barbizon school for inspiration, and Charles-François Daubigny in particular. His landscapes from this decade thus depict the French and Swiss countryside in a fully accomplished Realist style. Toward the end of 1870, due to political and social unrest caused by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Rico decided to leave France and return to his native Spain.

At the invitation of his good friend and colleague Marià Fortuny, Rico moved to

the southern city of Granada, joining Fortuny and his wife Cecilia, as well as the painter Ricardo de Madrazo. The three artists worked closely during this period, with the styles of Rico and Fortuny overlapping so much that their watercolors-a specialty for both artists-were often confused for one another. It was during this time that, through Fortuny's influence, Rico's paintings began to reveal a newfound sense of luminosity and color. His time in Andalucía was, according to his memoirs, one of his happiest, and also one of his most artistically productive periods.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023