Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós
Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós (May 27, 1879 – May 29, 1968) was an Argentine painter of the
Life and work
De Quirós was born in Gualeguay, Entre Ríos Province, in 1879. He began to paint at age eight, and shortly afterwards, created a facial composite sketch that resulted in a fugitive criminal's apprehension. De Quirós was a restless student, and often skipped classes to spend time among the area's gauchos; during one such opportunity, he witnessed a duel and, inspired by the event, created his first known painting.
His father, a
The setback proved to be temporary, however, and Cesáreo earned the Rome Prize from the Spanish
He again returned briefly to Argentina in 1910 to attend the
The 1914 death of his estranged father, as well as the outbreak of World War I, prompted de Quirós to relocate to the family home in Gualeguay. A patron of the arts, President Victorino de la Plaza had 72 of his works added to his National Fine Arts Commission's collection in 1915, and continued success locally, in Chile and in Uruguay allowed de Quirós to purchase a large atelier facing the Palermo Rose Garden in Buenos Aires.
His marriage suffered, however, and their 1923 separation led de Quirós to purchase a secluded
The artist relocated in 1947 to an equestrian estate in upscale Buenos Aires suburb of Vicente López, where one of his neighbors was a close friend, Florencio Molina Campos (arguably Argentina's leading figure in naïve art[citation needed]). He earned a Grand Prize at the Madrid Biennale in 1951, and in 1960 married Yole Lanzelotti, a soprano. Thirty works from his series "the gauchos" were acquired by National Fine Arts Museum in 1965, and his native province awarded him with their Legion of Merit in 1967.
Two days after his 89th birthday, Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós died in his Vicente López home; though the planned pavilion bearing his name at the National Fine Arts Museum was never built, the Pedro E. Martínez Provincial Fine Arts Museum in Paraná created the Salón Quirós, housing the largest single collection of his works; another significant collection was established near Vicente López at the Tigre Art Museum.
