Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor experienced the vagaries of Modernism (Orpheus Attacked by Bacchantes), even in 1900 when he received the Scholarship of the Spanish Academy in Rome for his painting The Family of the Anarchist on the Day of Execution (the theme set by the San Fernando Academy for the contest, in which Manuel Benedito and Eduardo Chicharro were also scholarship recipients). He would later paint society portraits, a field in which he was highly successful (and would even paint the royal family). He also depicted rural life in Galicia in a luminist style that can be compared to the work of Abram Arkhipov and Anders Zorn. Álvarez de Sotomayor’s portraits follow the traditional approach of the English style established by Anthony van Dyck in the 17^th century and those of Sir Thomas Lawrence, but without the latter’s genius or magnificent quality. His portraits were acceptable, as was his drawing. He taught at and ran the San Fernando Academy, and was the director of the Museo del Prado for two periods: between 1922 and 1931 and between 1939 and 1960.

• Julián Gállego Serrano
• María José Alonso

Gamazo Abarca was the son of Germán Gamazo, a Liberal Party politician who held the Development & Overseas and Finance portfolios in Sagasta’s government. He inherited large swathes of agricultural land around Boecillo (Valladolid). He studied law in Madrid and extended his studies in Germany and Deusto. In June 1909 he was given the title of Count of Gamazo, and the titles of Marques of Soto de Aller and Viscount of Miravalles were bestowed on him in 1952.

As a Maurist Conservative, he was a member of the Spanish Parliament from 1909 to 1923 for different districts of Valladolid and Under-Secretary for Grace and Justice in 1919. A member of the General Board of the Banco de España from 1922 onwards, he was appointed Governor in 1930 during General Berenguer’s government, when Manuel Argüelles was Minister of Finance. The goal of the monetary authorities was to ensure a stable peseta exchange rate, and the unstoppable depreciation of the currency led Gamazo Abarca to resign in August of that same year. He was also a member of the Bank’s General Board during the following periods: in 1935, during the Spanish Civil War in the National area (Burgos) between 1937 and 1939, and, once the war had ended, from 1940 to 1947 and from 1952 to 1958.

During the Second Republic, he was a founding member of the Acción Española cultural association and of Spanish Renovation, a political party that he represented when he was elected to the Spanish parliament in 1936. An ardent royalist, he helped Alfonso XIII in exile and under Franco he supported the Count of Barcelona by promoting cultural institutions of a royalist bent. He was also a businessman linked to industrial transformation and financial groups and companies such as the Compañía General del Corcho, Compañía de Tabacos de Filipinas, Banco Hispano Colonial, Ferrocarriles Andaluces and Compañía Hispano-Americana de Electricidad (CHADE).

Paloma Gómez Pastor