Benito Fariña Cisneros
- 1903
- Oil on canvas
- 65 x 52 cm
- Cat. P_115
- Comissioned from the artist in 1902
This powerful figure with his bushy white moustache is of interest not just because of his singular appearance but because the picture was painted by Francisco Belda, Marquis of Cabra, who was himself an employee and later the Deputy Governor of the Bank. It was his efforts that led to the purchase of a work by Antonio María Esquivel and to the identification and saving of six works by Goya owned by the Bank. When he painted this portrait of Fariña Cisneros, Belda was Secretary of the Banco de España. He was an expert in the history of art and an excellent painter. A mistake in dating led to the belief that he must have painted the picture from memory or from a photograph, as it was thought to date from after the subject's death. However it is more likely that the initial sketches were made from life before Fariña's death in 1903.
Comments updated by Carlos Martín.
Deputy Governor of the Banco de España 1884 - 1903
Benito Fariña Cisneros enrolled in the army at the age of fifteen, and left ten years later as an infantry lieutenant holding the official rank of captain. He joined the Banco de España in 1858 as a cashier at the Banco de Alicante/Alacant branch, which had been set up along with a branch in Valencia under the Issuing Banks Act of 28 January 1856. Until 1874 these were the only regional branches of the Banco de España. In 1861 he was transferred to the central headquarters in Madrid, where he worked as Head of the Current Accounts Auditing, General and Correspondence Sections. In 1868 he was appointed as Delegate for Tax Collection in Zaragoza as part of the direct tax collection service provided by the Banco de España throughout the country from 1868 to 1893, under an agreement with the government signed in 1867. In 1874, against the background of the monopoly on the issuing of banknotes granted under a decree dated 18 March, he was commissioned by the Cabinet to handle the merger of the Banks of Pamplona, Vitoria and Oviedo into the Banco de España and the setting up of new branch offices in those cities. He completed the takeover agreements in record time and set the pattern that was to be followed in all subsequent takeovers of local banks. He was appointed as Director of the Zaragoza branch that same year, and remained in that post until he became Secondary head of the General Office for Taxation. After that his career at the Bank really took off: he was appointed as Custodian of Securities in 1878, General Auditor in 1882, Second Deputy Governor in 1885 and First Deputy Governor in 1901.
Other works by Francisco Belda y Pérez de Nueros