By:
Julián Gállego Serrano, María José Alonso , Carlos Martín
A student of José Romero and of Eduardo Cano in Seville, José Villegas y Cordero worked as a copyist in the Museo del Prado in Madrid and trained at the studio of Federico de Madrazo thanks to the support of his parents. When he was twenty he moved to Rome, where he spent long periods of time in contact with masters of his generation including Fortuny, Pradilla and Rosales. In the Italian capital, he moved around from studio to studio and place to place, until his commercial success enabled him to build a luxurious house in the Hispanic-Muslim style in 1887. This house became an important inner sanctum for the artistic circles and Roman society of that time. In 1888 he was appointed director of the Spanish Academy in Rome, and from 1901 to 1918 was the Director of the Prado, where he organised the institution’s first monographic exhibitions on El Greco (1902) and Zurbarán (1905).
Villegas y Cordero continued to paint after leaving the Prado in early 1921, but the accounts of the time report that he withdrew from society and was afflicted by a progressive loss of sight. He died in Madrid on 10 November of that year.
A student of José Romero and of Eduardo Cano in Seville, José Villegas y Cordero worked as a copyist in the Museo del Prado in Madrid and trained at the studio of Federico de Madrazo thanks to the support of his parents. When he was twenty he moved to Rome, where he spent long periods of time in contact with masters of his generation including Fortuny, Pradilla and Rosales. In the Italian capital, he moved around from studio to studio and place to place, until his commercial success enabled him to build a luxurious house in the Hispanic-Muslim style in 1887. This house became an important inner sanctum for the artistic circles and Roman society of that time. In 1888 he was appointed director of the Spanish Academy in Rome, and from 1901 to 1918 was the Director of the Prado, where he organised the institution’s first monographic exhibitions on El Greco (1902) and Zurbarán (1905).
Villegas y Cordero continued to paint after leaving the Prado in early 1921, but the accounts of the time report that he withdrew from society and was afflicted by a progressive loss of sight. He died in Madrid on 10 November of that year.