Ricardo Balaca

Ricardo Balaca y Orejas-Canseco (31 December 1844 – 12 February 1880) was a Spanish painter and illustrator who specialized in battle scenes. His brother, Eduardo, was also a well-known painter.

Biography

Balaca was born in

Federico de Madrazo.^[1] His talents displayed themselves at an early age; he was only thirteen when he had his first showing at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, receiving "honorable mention".^[2]

He created drawings, illustrations and numerous portraits, but is chiefly remembered for his portrayals of battles in

Palacio de las Cortes, and the Battle of Bailén.^[2]

He also provided illustrations for a deluxe edition of the Miguel de Cervantes novel Don Quixote, annotated by Cervantes scholar Nicolás Díaz de Benjumea [es] and published by Montaner y Simón after Balaca's death. It appears, however, that not all of the nearly three hundred illustrations are by Balaca, although no one else was officially credited in the first edition.^[3] In a reprint, issued in 1970, Josep Lluís Pellicer also receives credit.

He died in Madrid, aged 35. None of the available sources give a cause for his early death.