Ricardo Arredondo Calmache

Place: Cella

Born: 1850

Death: 1911

Biography:

Ricardo Arredondo Calmache was a Spanish painter born in Cella in 1850. He was the nephew of a priest who later became a canon in Toledo. At the age of twelve, his family moved to Toledo where he refused to enter a military cadet school and took art lessons from Matías Moreno. He later enrolled at the 'Escuela Especial de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado de Madrid' and studied with Carlos de Haes. Arredondo then travelled to Paris and associated with the circle of Ernest Meissonier, where he was exposed to the influence of the Barbizon school. Upon returning to Spain, he participated in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts and continued to be a regular participant for the next two decades. He also travelled throughout Spain, creating drawings for a major publishing project that never came to fruition. Arredondo inherited a small fortune upon the death of his uncle and used the money to buy and refurbish a dilapidated mansion. He became a municipal councillor and was a member of the Monument Commission, where he oversaw restoration of the Puerta de Bisagra Nueva. This brought him a corresponding membership in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes. His numerous cityscapes and landscapes around the Tagus River earned him the title 'Pintor de Toledo'. He died in Madrid in 1911.