thumb|243px|El Panteon de los Heroes, 1898

Francisco Arturo Michelena Castillo (; 16 June 1863  – 29 July 1898) was a Venezuelan painter known for his historical and genre scenes and portraits.

Biography

His father, Juan Antonio Michelena (1832-1918) was also a painter. His mother, Socorro Castillo (1839-1909), was the daughter of the muralist, .

He began to paint at a very early age, with lessons from his father. In 1874, aged only eleven, he drew the illustrations for the American edition of Costumbres Venezolanas (Venezuelan Customs) by the journalist Francisco de Sales Pérez (1836-1926), who became his sponsor and introduced him to the circle of influential people associated with the statesman, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, in hopes of getting him a scholarship. Later, he received lessons from a French emigrant painter named Constanza de Sauvage, who had been a student of Eugène Devéria.

From 1879 to 1882, he and his father operated a private painting academy in Valencia; fulfilling orders for portraits, wall paintings and copies of the Old Masters. In 1883, this exposure enabled him to enter two paintings in the "Great Exhibition of the Centennial of the Birth of El Libertador" (Simón Bolívar), where he was awarded a silver medal.

Two years later, he was awarded a government grant to study in Europe. He travelled to Paris, in the company of Martín Tovar y Tovar, where he enrolled at the Académie Julian and took lessons from Jean-Paul Laurens. Encouraged by Laurens, he entered the Salon of 1887 with a painting called "The Sick Child", which was awarded a gold medal in the second class; the highest honor awarded to a foreigner up to that time. Years later, the painting was acquired by the Astor family and taken to New York. He received another gold medal at the Exposition Universelle (1889) for his depiction of Charlotte Corday headed to the gallows.

That same year, he suddenly returned to Venezuela and, shortly after, married , a well known art collector. After that, he and his bride returned to Paris.

He died of his tuberculosis in 1898, aged only thirty-five, leaving numerous works unfinished.

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File:Miranda en la Carraca by Arturo Michelena.jpg|Miranda in La Carraca, 1896

File:El niño enfermo. Paris 1886 by Arturo Michelena.jpg|The Sick Child, 1886

File:Carlota Corday 1889 by Arturo Michelena.jpg|Charlotte Corday, 1889

File:Lastenia Tello de Michelena by Arturo Michelena.jpg|Portrait of his wife, Lastenia, 1890

File:Muerte de Sucre en Berruecos 1895 by Arturo Michelena.JPG|Death of Sucre in Berruecos, 1895

File:Vuelvan caras.jpg|Vuelvan Caras (About Face)

File:La Joven Madre 1889 by Arturo Michelena.jpg|La Joven Madre (The Young Mother), 1889

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References

  • More works by Michelena @ ArtNet