Ricardo de Madrazo y Garreta was the son of renowned artist Federico de Madrazo and the brother of painter Raimundo and of Cecilia, who married Mariano Fortuny. The latter advised him concerning his painting, which he began to learn under the iron hand of his father. His career was more modest than those of other members of this dynasty of artists, founded by José de Madrazo, several of whose works are in the Banco de España Collection. He was an honest, unpretentious portrait artist, as shown by his painting of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, painted ten years before his portrait of Manuel Allendesalazar (1906).

• Julián Gállego Serrano
• María José Alonso

He was an agricultural engineer and also held a degree in Law. Ideologically he was a conservative. He was elected to parliament for the first time in 1894 and re-elected successively until 1892. In 1898 he was elected to the Senate representing the province of Lérida and in 1900 was made a lifetime senator. Indeed, the Senate is the institution with which he most closely identified over his lifetime. He was an active politician and held various posts and ministerial portfolios. He was Mayor of Madrid from April to June 1900 and Treasury Minister from July to October that same year. He was Minster for Public Instruction and Fine Arts from December 1902 to July 1903 in the government led by Francisco Silvela. He became Minister of Agriculture and Public Works in December 1904, and moved on to be Minister of Governance that same month and then Governor of the Banco de España, a post which he held until August 1905. From January 1907 to October 1909, he was Minister of State and was a member of the Council of State during the two-year mandate of Canalejas (1910-1912). He then went on to head Compañía Arrendataria de Tabacos. In April 1919 he was appointed for a second term as Governor of the Banco de España and in June became Speaker of the Senate, though he resigned from the post in December that same year on being appointed Head of the Cabinet. He formed a coalition government that brought together widely differing factions of the fragmented pro-monarchy parties, and, for the first time since 1914, managed to get the Spanish parliament to approve a budget, the prime legal basis for the authority of a government. During his mandate, Spain joined the League of Nations. He was overwhelmed by the mining strikes in Asturias and was forced to resign in May 1920. Following the assassination of Eduardo Dato in March 1921 he formed another government, this time with markedly conservative tendencies. The events of the time, especially the disastrous Battle of Annual and the Monte Arruit massacre in Morocco, led to the fall of his government. Manuel Allendesalazar was a brilliant politician and orator who was known for leaving his sentences and paragraphs unfinished. Indeed, it was said of him that he spoke 'in first drafts'.

Elena Serrano García