VICTOR PATRICIO LANDALUZE. (1827-1889 ). EL encuentro.

VICTOR PATRICIO LANDALUZE ( 1828-1889 ) EL encuentro. Oil on Canvas, signed ' Landaluze' lower right. Painted ca. 1875. Provenance: Private collection, Miami. Anon. Sale; Christie's, New York 24 November 1992, lot 86. Private Collection, New Jersey. Anon. Sale; Christie's, New York, 20 November 2002, lot 66. Acquired from the above sale. Victor Patricio Landaluze, was born in Bilbao in 1830. His artistic abilities soon became evident and he was first taught by Jose Madrazo in Madrid. After this, Landaluze went to Paris to learn the technique of lithography. At the age of twenty he moved to Cuba, first settling in the city of Cardenas and then in La Habana, one ot the most important cultural centers in Central America at that period and a city characterized by the refines social customs of the middle and elite social classes. Landaluze embarked on a lengthy career as an illustrator and caricaturist for the press. He worked for a wide variety of periodicals of the day and his works increasingly focused on picturesque scenes of the everyday life of the humbler social classes. He also produced illustrations for works such as los cubanos pintados por si mismos [ cubans depicted by themselves ] and was responsible for the section entitled Latest Fashions in EL Almendares in which he reflected the diversity and elegance of Cuban society of this period. Landaluze died of tuberculosis in 1889, having received numerous decorations ( both artistic and military ) from the Spanish government.