Ricardo Federico Corchon y Diaque 1853-1925

Born in Madrid in 1853, Ricardo Federico Corchón y Diaque received his earliest artistic training from his father, who was also a painter, before entering the studio of Carlos de Haes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. There, he acquired a thorough command of drawing and composition.

He soon abandoned history painting in favour of genre scenes and landscapes, establishing a studio in Paris at an early stage of his career and furthering his training under Léon Bonnat. A regular exhibitor at the Salon from 1875 onwards, his genre scenes and views of the Parisian boulevards (fig. 1) enjoyed a measure of success with both the public and critics.

His career acquired an international dimension following his participation in the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition and, two years later, in the Melbourne International Exhibition, which introduced his work to a more cosmopolitan audience.

Throughout his career, Corchón y Diaque specialised in elegant scenes of Belle Époque life, depicting fashionable gatherings, promenades, picnics, refined interiors and Orientalist compositions. These works reveal a pronounced taste for narrative, richly detailed costumes and subtle effects of light.

His precise and delicate brushwork combines a distinctly Spanish sense of colour with a characteristically French sensitivity to atmospheric effects and scenes of modern life.