Rosario Weiss Zorrilla

Rosario Weiss Zorrilla
Rosario Weiss Zorrilla
	Self-portrait (date unknown)
Born	October 2, 1814; Madrid, Spain
Died	July 31, 1843 (aged 28); Madrid, Spain
Awards	Silver medal from Sociedad Filomática de Burdeos

Maria del Rosario Weiss Zorrilla (2 October 1814 – 31 July 1843) was a Spanish painter and engraver best known for portraits. She was the

Francisco de Goya and lived with him during his final years when her mother was his maid. Over seventy of her drawings, preserved at the Hispanic Society of America, were once attributed to Goya but, in 1956, the art historian José López-Rey [es] demonstrated conclusively that they were hers.^[2]

Biography

She was born in Madrid, the daughter of Leocadia Zorrilla and, according to baptismal documents, her husband of seven years, Isidore Weiss, a German-Jewish jeweler whose family lived in Madrid.^[3] However, in 1811, Weiss had sworn out a legal complaint accusing Leocadia of "illicit conduct". This, together with the fact that she went to live with Goya in 1817 (as his housekeeper, officially) fueled speculation that Rosario was Goya's child; or certainly not Weiss' in any event.

Goya began giving her drawing lessons, together with her first writing lessons, when she was only seven. She studied with him until age fifteen and then with architect Tiburcio Pérez from 1823 to 1824.

Ferdinand VII.^[4] Once there, Rosario helped support her family by making copies of the Old Masters at the Museo del Prado. She continued her work as a copyist at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and in various private collections. She also participated in exhibitions there and at the Liceo Artístico y Literario. In 1840, the Academia named her an "Academician of Merit".^[4]

That same year, she obtained an appointment as drawing tutor to Princesses

Luisa Fernanda, receiving a salary of 8,000 reales.^[2] This position was apparently obtained by liberal friends of her brother, Guillermo, who knew Agustín Argüelles

, Isabel's legal guardian.

Zorilla also did work as an illustrator. She illustrated Isla de Cuba pintoresca by Manuela de Andueza.[1]

According to a report by the royal doctor, her sudden death at the age of twenty-nine seems to have been precipitated by a severe emotional shock she suffered upon encountering a violent demonstration while leaving the

Gaceta de Madrid from later that year, written by a friend of her brother, indicates that she died from an intestinal infection (probably cholera).^[4]