José Gallegos y Arnosa

"The Prayer", 19th Century Watercolor of Three Men Praying by José Gallegos

Circa 1880

José Gallegos y Arnosa (Jerez de la Frontera, May 3, 1857-Anzio, September 20, 1917) was a Spanish painter and sculptor. Since childhood he was attracted to drawing and painting, highlighting, along with Salvador Sánchez Barbudo, in the pictorial arts. Together they frequently visited the studio of Luis Sevil, romantic painter of the first generation of Jerez painters. After his first learning stage in his hometown, Gallegos left for Madrid in 1873 with the help of his patron Guillermo Garvey, a winemaker, and began a new stage at the Academy of San Fernando. Subsequently, Gallegos also traveled to Tunisia and Morocco, attracted by the light and the suggestive atmosphere of these exotic lands. In 1878 he painted Arab Marriage, a painting purchased by the government, and in the same year he left for Rome in order to expand his knowledge, thus fulfilling the wishes of his patron. In 1880 he decided to settle permanently in the Eternal City. Rome was his definitive residence, although from there he traveled frequently to cities such as Madrid, Seville, Jerez de la Frontera, Munich, London, Paris and Berlin. In 1887 Gallegos married the Italian Giuseppina Trelanzi and, when widowed in 1897, he remarried, this time with the Constance Harding, an English lady. With Giuseppina he has one of the architect's sons: Jorge Gallegos Trelanzi. His cousin José Luis was also the founder of the first official football team in the city of Seville and first president of the said team, the Sevilla Fútbol Club.