Manuel Benedito Y Vives (1875-1963)

Lady with fruits.
Oil on canvas
Signed
31 1/2 inches (h) x 25 1/2 inches (w) canvas.
At the back has an Argentinean stamp from 1910. BIO:Spanish painter.Member of the Royal Board of the Prado Museum, appointed in 1951. In 1888 he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia, where he studied under the direction of Salvá and Vilá. In 1894 he entered the workshop of Joaquín Sorolla and two years later traveled to Madrid with his teacher, where he made illustrations for The Modern Magazine and Black and White. Pensioner from 1900 to 1904 at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, traveled through France, Belgium and Holland. From 1904, he settled in Madrid. In 1918 he was appointed artistic advisor to the Royal Tapestry Factory. He worked as a teacher of color and composition at the School of San Fernando, replacing Sorolla and later became director of that school. He belonged to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and the Noble Arts of San Carlos de Valencia. In 1925 he was appointed corresponding member of the Hispanic Society of America of New York, and corresponding member of the National Academy of Fine Arts of Lisbon. In 1941 he was elected president of the Board of Trustees of the Sorolla Museum in Madrid. He was named knight and great cross of Alfonso X the Wise. He cultivated the portrait, the still life, local types and landscapes. His painting is of a nuanced impressionist style of great luminosity and in it influences of flamenco painting are appreciated. He sent his works to exhibitions and artistic contests, awarded with first medal in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts of 1904 and 1906, by the canvases titled Canto vii del Infierno by Dante and Madre, respectively; and with a gold medal in the Hispano-Francesa of 1908, as well as in the Internationals of Munich (1909), Brussels (1910), Buenos Aires (1910) and Barcelona (1911). In 1943 he donated a stone fountain (early twentieth century) for the interior garden of the Prado Museum