Rafael Tegeo, the first painter anti-establishment ‘smeared’ by the policy

it Is likely that you do not have heard never of him. It is one of those painters eaten by the story, which appear with a rebel force able to make a cut of the sleeves to the academy and to the little fade between the pages of the manuals. Rafael Tegeo (Caravaca de la Cruz, 1798-Madrid, 1856) is shown from time to time in any exhibition, salpicándola with a box, but none up to the time had stopped to admire its strange presence in the history of Spanish painting. Never fit in any mold of the time.

The chronicles remind us that his strong personality —in this case, a euphemism for honesty— not made it easy for his legacy: “they Had their works to give more reputation you have, but your character sharp and dark would hurt to assert themselves in life. Posterity, in general, prefer to perpetuate the names that have already come to exalted to get into restorations”. Among the virtues of the painter was not political correctness or social skills, in an environment in which both were essential to achieve recognition, although it was not deserved. Tegeo ran out of the had been gained.

Yes, he was a man uncompromising with the price of success. “It is a very good artist, of a quality very superior to its contemporaries and only comparable with Vicente Lopez, but never came to prosper in the court by the dye a politician that never gave up. That commitment was more of a stain that would hurt with the aristocracy,” explains Carlos García Navarro, a specialist in painting of the NINETEENTH century in the Museo del Prado and curator, along with Asunción Cardona Suanzes, the first exhibition devoted to whom their biographers have been remembered as a very rigorous and demanding against corruption.

The Museum of Romanticism (Madrid) opens tomorrow, Tuesday the appointment you will know about the life and work of this rarity plastic and politics, who bought the exquisite The madonna of the goldfinch in 2017. A year after that came the donation of two portraits of a marriage Galaup. The total number of items identified in public institutions, as Spanish does not reach the thirties and half not exposed to the public. Another important fact to take into account their absence. The Prado retains up to 15 paintings and exposes a: Pedro Benítez and his daughter María de la Cruz (1820). This museum, in addition, you will receive soon the spectacular Battle of Lapitas and centaurs, a donation committed by the historian and collector William P. Jordan, prior to his death.

it Is a romantic tempered by the neoclassicism of Jacques-Louis David. Oblivious completely to the adulation İlbet and the sensationalism. Modest and sober. Simple and eclectic. Its attention by the naturalism of the funds of the sitters was always the most applauded of their work. Despite the fact be identified in appearance with the Spanish school, favored the drawing, and the cool tones to accompany the character of their austere portraits of the liberal bourgeoisie. As a painter of history extremely brilliant no one has recognized. The responsible of the research of this “ghost” of the history of art highlights the interest of Tegeo by popping the canon in a thousand pieces, mixing genres (such as portrait to landscape) or rescuing painters less famous Raphael and Guido Reni, as Bronzino.

he Is an artist fully modern in their behavior, in their sovereignty and independence of the nobility. Who will support you in your purchases are liberal as he is, the emerging new class that will end up bringing down the dandruff absolutist. Because Tegeo was marked for ever in his determination against the regime of Fernando VII. The artist murciano was, above all, a liberal of the old: a lover of equality, freedom and the Constitution just to get the ball rolling. In fact, Tegeo is the first artist that you access with charge at a town hall constitutionalist, in Madrid, the first to position his political ideology in public and the first, also, to be refined by it.

he Lived very confident of their skills and resources, supported by a steady customer base that never stopped entrusting him with portraits. This made him the favorite of the liberals —clients and like-minded, ideologically— and allowed him to work with the peace of mind and independence that dan does not depend on the public money of large institutions. Garcia Navarro assures that the portraits of most interest to Tegeo are those of the bourgeoisie rebel who wants to seize the political power of the country, because they break with the device of the genre.

His political consciousness was ahead of everything, even of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. When the divorces and unwillingness to remain academic honor, the queen Elizabeth II writes to throw him in the ears and demand less vehemence. Should, according to the monarch, to give example to others. The rebellious anti-establishment has never been seen... by the system. That did not stop the queen, in 1846, he appointed painter of the chamber, because at the end of his life.

Asunción Cardona writes in the catalog that Tegeo was a man of origin, most humble, “self-made exclusively through your effort, your tenacity and pride”. The director of the Museum of Romanticism, has in his research that could not overcome what he deemed an insufficient consideration of his work. I lived it as an affront to personal. “The disappointment affect their health even cause death,” the 56-year-old, has Cardona. His fortune posthumously sailed adrift, between “shy recognitions and fierce criticism”.