José Benlliure y Gil 1855-1937

José Benlliure y Gil, born in Valencia on 1 October 1855 and deceased in the same city on 5 April 1937, was a Spanish painter.

Born in the Cabañal-Cañamelar district of Valencia, José Benlliure belonged to a family of artists. His father, Juan Antonio Benlliure, was a decorative painter specializing in ornamental painting with floral motifs and trompe-l’œil effects. From his mother, Ángela Gil, José inherited his second surname. His own son, José Benlliure Ortiz (1884-1916), was also a painter; following his son’s premature death, José donated several of his works to the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia (San Pío V). His nephew was the architect, sculptor, and painter José Luis Benlliure López de Arana, son of the sculptor Mariano Benlliure, José’s brother. Another brother, Juan Antonio Benlliure y Gil, was likewise a painter.

After studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos in Valencia, José Benlliure collaborated with his father and completed his artistic training in the studio of the painter Francisco Domingo y Marqués. From 1875 onward, he regularly sent his works to the Madrid Exhibitions. At the Paris Salon, he exhibited genre scenes with Spanish subjects as well as religious paintings, through which he expressed a deep commitment to Christianity. He was later drawn to Symbolism, and his painting became increasingly diaphanous and poetic, almost dreamlike, transposing concrete imagery into a more abstract reality.

Settling in Rome, Benlliure became a central figure for the Spanish artistic community there. He married María Ortiz in 1880, and their son was born in Rome. From 1903 to 1913, he served as a professor at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. King Amadeo I of Spain commissioned him to paint a portrait of his son, Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, who became Infante of Spain and Prince of Asturias.

José Benlliure held seats at several prestigious institutions: the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos in Valencia, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.