Fernando Alvarez De Sotomayor Biography | Oil Paintings.

Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza tried to follow several careers, but finally, he devoted himself to painting. In 1899 he received a scholarship to study art in Rome, where he lived for four years, and he visited France, Belgium, and the Netherlands before returning to Spain in 1904. In 1910 he was offered a teaching position and then made director of the School of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile, where he stayed for six years, his influence was immense, and he left his mark favoring popular themes and Spain's imprint on the first generation of Chilean artists recognized as the "Generation of 13".

In 1915, the family returned to Madrid and Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor was nominated court painter of Alfonso XIII. In 1922 he became a member of the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and the director of the Museo del Prado which he held until the Spanish Civil War in 1931. He played a great role in hiding most of the paintings the museum held during the Spanish civil war and later on recuperating them. He again became director of the museum a second time after the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1960.

Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor received many medals and decorations, starting in 1904 he won the second prize and in 1906 the first prize at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes. In 1907 he won the Exposición Internacional de Barcelona, as well as medals in Munich, Buenos Aires, and Liège. He was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Orden de Alfonso X el Sabio, The Great Cross of Isabel La Catolica, the Great Cross Of Alfonso, XII, and the Italian Court medal.

He Traveled To Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Chile.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.