Julio Vila y Prades (1873-1930)

Julio Vila y Prades was a Spanish painter🎨 and muralist who also worked throughout Latin America.

Against his parents wishes, he began his artistic studies at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos with Francisco Domingo Marqués and Joaquín Agrasot🎨.

He then went to Madrid and was an assistant in the workshop of Joaquín Sorolla🎨 from 1893-1904.

He was a frequent participant at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, where he took honorable mention in 1892 and 1897 and won a medal🎨 in 1904 for his painting, "On Rice".

That same year, he went to Paris and spent a short time studying at the Académie Julian.

Expressing a desire to visit South America, his friend Sorolla contacted the Catalan businessman and art promoter, José Artal (1862-1918), who was based in Buenos Aires.

With his support, Vila went to Argentina, where he painted landscapes and genre scenes on the pampas.

He returned to Europe in 1906, spending some time in Brittany, then visiting Madrid, where he made drawings at the wedding of King Alfonso XIII.

In 1908, following the death of his mother, he went back to Buenos Aires and married José (soon to be "Count") Artal's daughter, Carmen, who was fifteen years his junior.

Over the next few years, he travelled throughout Argentina, receiving several commissions for decorative works, including the ceiling at the Tigre Club, and murals at the Plaza Hotel and the Tucumán Government Palace.

He also produced numerous portraits.

Plans to move to Paris were quashed by the beginning of World War I and his family settled in San Sebastián instead. He continued to travel, however, working in New York, Havana, Caracas and Mexico City.

He returned to Spain in 1921 and painted the ceiling of the new Gran Kursaal de San Sebastián (since demolished).

After that, he went to Peru, to do on-site sketches for a mural of the Battle of Ayacucho, to be placed in the new Bolivarian Museum in Caracas.

The year 1924 found him in San Francisco, painting a ceiling mural, The Apotheosis of the California Soldier, for the theater at the Legion of Honor museum.

In 1928, he moved his workshop to Barcelona, so his wife could be closer to her family.

That same year, the Peruvian government awarded🎨 him the "Order of the Sun", although the mural that had been commissioned would remain unfinished at his death, two years later. | © Wikipedia

Julio Vila y Prades (Valencia, 1873-Barcellona, ​​1930) - Pittore spagnolo🎨.

Ha studiato alla San Carlos School of Fine Arts di Valencia, essendo discepolo di Joaquín Agrasot🎨, Juan Peyró e Francisco Domingo Marqués.

Successivamente si trasferisce a Madrid, frequentando il laboratorio di Joaquín Sorolla🎨 tra il 1893-1904.

Frequenta regolarmente le mostre nazionali di belle arti, dove ottiene una menzione d'onore nel 1892 e nel 1897 e una seconda medaglia nel 1904 per il dipinto sul riso.

Genero di José Artal, il grande promotore della pittura spagnola a Buenos Aires, nel 1904 viaggiò in Argentina, dove dipinse il dipinto "Driving Hacienda", che presentò alla Mostra Nazionale del 1906.

Da Buenos Aires viaggiò in altri paesi dell'America Latina, in cui ha ricevuto alcune commissioni per la pittura decorativa, come i soffitti per il Tigery Club di Buenos Aires, il Palazzo del Governo a Tucumán o il Club de Mar de Plata.

Durante questi anni ha anche realizzato numerosi ritratti di personalità.

Ritornato in Spagna nel 1921, decorò il soffitto del Gran Kursaal a San Sebastián. | © Museo del Prado.