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Jeune fille allongée dans l'herbe avec son ombrelle, Repos dans le chemin par Joseph Johann Süss
DELAHOGUE, Alexis Auguste DELAHOGUE
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RUIZ Antonio GONZÁLEZ RUIZ
Corella, 1711-Madrid, 1788
González Ruiz was born in the neighbourhood of Corella. At the age of fifteen he moved to Madrid in search of money and better teachers. He also got acquainted with the famous landscape painter Michel-Ange Houasse and worked in his studio during four years until the death of the maestro.
In 1732, craving for novelty and dreaming to complete his education, he went to Europe without a scholarship, but with some saved money. He travelled to the most important cities of that time: Paris, Rome and Naples that contributed significantly to his learning.
When he returned to Madrid in 1737 he made frieds in the circle of the sculptor Giovanni Domenico Olivieri, an authentic do-all in the artistic society of the Villa and the Court.
In 1739, he was appointed painter of the king, in the times of Felipe V, and from this time on we find Antonio, until his last breath, taking active part in the most important events which marked the Spanish artistic life of the XVIII century.
On the 13th of July in 1744 the king signed the Royal Decree that lay the basis for the creation of the Junta Preparatoria ingaged in the foundation of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the way it was made in Europe many years before; the director of the above-mentioned Junta was Olivieri, Antonio’s friend. The frenchman Van Loo and González Ruiz were appointed directors of the Painting section. Among the first appointed professors were Peña, Calleja, Bonavía and Menéndez.
During the following years González Ruiz had to be especially loyal to the Academy because in 1760 he got an honorable certificate and a golden medal, “the Academy expresses appreciation for the most appropriate, decorous, and significant evaluation that was made of this Person, his talents and his substantial circumstances” . The year of 1768 was especially successful for him, as he was appointed honourable academician of the Academy of San Carlos of Valencia, created by Carlos III the previous year, and succeeded Ventura Rodríguez in the direction of the Academy of San Fernando.
In 1771 he was appointed honourable member of the Imperial Academy of San Petersburg. Filled with various honours, passed the last years of his life. He was succeeded by Francisco Bayeu, his brother-in-law who influenced the Spanish and European painting, and Francisco de Goya, who became director of the Painting section of the Royal academy of San Fernando, as the position remained vacant for some time.