Rafael Monleón
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Rafael Monleón y Torres (1843, Valencia – 24 November 1900, Madrid) was a Spanish artist (painting, engraving, ceramics), archaeologist, historian and naval pilot.
Biography
His father was the architect, Sebastián Monleón Estellés (1815–1878), a professor at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos.[1] After studying there from 1855 to 1866, he joined the merchant marine and became a pilot; sailing around Europe. Later, he was a student of the marine artist Paul Jean Clays in Bruges, where he also studied engraving. Upon his retrun to Spain, he completed his studies with Carlos de Haes.[1]
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At first, he was primarily a painter of azulejos, and his experience as a sailor gave him a particular talent for marine art. He focused on shipwrecks and other dramatic scenes, but he was also knowledgeable in regards to naval archaeology and history; which he was able to take advantage of when he was named the conservator/restorer for the Museo Naval de Madrid in 1870.[1]
His most ambitious work was never published during his lifetime: the treatise on the Historia gráfica de la navegación y de las construcciones navales en todos los tiempos y en todos los países (Graphic History of Navigation and Naval Construction...). It was illustrated with over a thousand drawings, blue prints and watercolors; completed while he was at the museum, together with hundreds of texts and vignettes on every known type of ship, European and Oriental. A small excerpt was later published as La Construcción Naval española en la obra de Rafael Monleón Torres.
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He participated in every National Exhibition of Fine Arts after 1864, except for 1892, owing to his involvement in the celebrations for the four-hundredth anniversary of the "Discovery of America", which included an elaborate scale model of the Santa María being made as a gift to the United States.[2] As a result, he was awarded a second-class Cross of Naval Merit and the title of Commander in the Order of Charles III.
As an engraver, he provided illustrations on marine topics for La Ilustración Española y Americana, Nuevo Mundo and other periodicals. He also created ceramics, some of which have been preserved at the González Martí National Museum of Ceramics and Decorative Arts. As a designer, he created his own office furniture.
References
- 1 2 3 Brief biography @ the Museo del Prado.
- ↑ Brief biography @ MCN Biografías.
Further reading
- Rafael Monleón, Construcciones navales bajo su aspecto artístico (2 vols., reprint), Lunwerg, 1989/90, Vol.1, ISBN 84-7782-080-5, Vol.2, ISBN 84-7782-094-5
- Fernado González de Canales and Fernando de la Guardia, La Construccion Naval española en la obra de Rafael Monleón Torres, Alcañiz y Fresnos, 2007 ISBN 84-96016-84-6
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rafael Monleón. |
- "Rafael Monleón: el Pintor del Mar y su Historia by Maria Jesús Piqueras Gomez from Ars longa: cuadernos de arte, 1991, No. 2: 49-52, digitalized @ Roderic.
- ArtNet: More works by Monleón.