Juan Francisco González
| Juan Francisco González | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Juan Francisco González September 25, 1853 Santiago, Chile |
| Died | March 4, 1933 Santiago, Chile |
| Nationality | Chilean |
| Known for | Painting |
| Notable work | Carretelas en la Vega, Retrato de Augusto d'Halmar, Callejon de San Fernando among others |
| Awards | 1884, 3rd Place, Salón de Santiago, Chile; 1890, 2nd Place, Salón Oficial, Santiago, Chile; 1892 Landscape Prize, Edwards Award, Salón Oficial, Santiago, Chile; 1896, 2nd Place, Valparaíso Municipality Exhibition, Chile; 1898 honourable mention, Salón Oficial, Santiago, Chile; 1900, 1st Place, Salón Oficial, Santiago, Chile; 1901 Landscape Prize, Edwards Award, Salón Oficial, Santiago, Chile; 1910, 2nd Place, Buenos Aires international Exhibition, Argentina; 1929, award winner at the Seville Hispano-American Exhibition, Spain; 1929, honourable mention, Edwards Award, Salón Oficial, Santiago, Chile; 1997, named most influential painter in Chile in a top ten ranking produced by a survey of a hundred thought leaders by the Cultural Corporation of Las Condes, Santiago, Chile. |
Juan Francisco González Escobar (Santiago, Chile, September 25, 1853 – Santiago, March 4, 1933) is known as one of the four Great Chilean Masters and as the archetypal romantic bohemian artist of the early 20th century. He was the most prolific of the Chilean masters, leaving an estimated 4,000 works, and was also notable for being one of Chile’s first modern painters. He was seen as a symbol of the new creative generation that appeared in 20th century Chile, with a style highly influenced by impressionism and local elements.
Right from the beginning, González worked in a free and flexible manner and did not stick rigidly to any particular techniques, giving him space to express his lively and restless personality. He took his attitude towards art as an attitude towards life and was considered by his successors as great example to follow.
As a master, González used to tell his students that to be a good painter, “first you must learn to observe and get excited about the colours and forms of nature, regardless of whether the picture and its details are accurate reflection of reality or not.”
Juan Francisco González, son of José González and Mercedes Escobar, grew up in Recoleta, a neighborhood of Santiago that runs along the side of Cerro Blanco hill, where his family ran a business importing goods from Ecuador. As a child, his parents enrolled him in art classes with Chilean artist Manuel Tapia and when he was 14, by a strange twist of fate, he met Pedro Lira, who would become another of the four Chilean masters. Lira, seeing that the boy had a bright future, recommended that he continue his career at the Chilean Academy of Painting. In 1869, aged 16, he entered the Academy, and was taught by the painters Ernesto Kirchbach and Juan Mochi.
González’ style was initially quite similar to that of his teachers, but his work progressed during a trip to Europe. His visits to Spain, Italy, England, France and Germany instilled in him a much more modern style of art than the traditional techniques he had learned in Chile. It was in France where he discovered Impressionism, a movement he identified with very much. He incorporated many elements of Impressions into his own style, such as the focus on capturing light and an appreciation for landscape and for small canvases. On his return to Chile in 1906, his name started to become well-known after giving a lecture at the University of Chile and was appointed as a lecturer at the Academy of painting, teaching sketching and freehand drawing.
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Wikipedia