Genaro Pérez Villaamil belongs to the record of art as a figure whose work outlasted the taste that first received it.
The record lists Genaro Pérez Villaamil as Spanish artist (1807-1854).
Genaro Pérez Villaamil was born at Ferrol in 1807. His recorded nationality is Spain. He trained at Reales Estudios de San Isidro and Real Colegio Militar de Santiago de Compostela.
The nineteenth century broke the academy's authority: independent exhibitions, dealers and the beginnings of modernism.
He worked as painter and lithographer.
His recorded movement is romanticism.
His best-known work is España artística y monumental. Art history is a record of what got kept, which is not the same as what was best.
Recognition followed: Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1840), Knight of the Order of Carlos III (1844), Knight of the Legion of Honour (1844) and Knight of the Order of Leopold (1845).
That the work was made in Spain shaped it: artistic traditions, academies and the galleries that decide what is seen have never been evenly distributed.
Genaro Pérez Villaamil died in 1854, aged 47. The work remains, hanging in collections that outlived both the artist and the market that first priced it.
Achievements
- Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic — 1840
- Knight of the Order of Carlos III — 1844
- Knight of the Legion of Honour — 1844
- Knight of the Order of Leopold — 1845
- Knight of the Order of Isabella the Catholic — 1838
- Notable work: España artística y monumental
- Movement: Romanticism
