Sketches of Spain Trivia Quiz

Answer: Joaquin Sorolla

Joaquin Sorolla was born in Valencia, Spain in 1863. He attended his first art school from 1878 to 1881, where he was formally trained as an artist and developed his incredibly talented drawing skills. From the early stages of his development he loved painting outdoors, which later reflected in his art work.

Sorolla's most typical paintings are characterized by his incredible ability to illustrate the effects of sunlight on people and landscapes. His passion was to paint typical beach scenes from his beloved Valencia. Although Sorolla's work is represented in museums all over the world, and many famous private collectors own his works, he is still not widely known outside Spain.

Answer: Juan Gris

Jose Victoriano Gonzalez-Perez was better known as Juan Gris; he was born in Madrid in 1887, and studied mechanical drawing in Madrid. During his studies he sold his drawings to local periodicals. Juan Gris although he was Spanish, lived and painted in France all his life. Unlike Picasso´s cubist paintings, his were full of colour and in general more cheerful and entertaining.

Some of his more famous paintings are "Violon et guitare" and his 1912 portrait of Pablo Picasso.

Answer: Joan Miro

Born in Barcelona in 1893, Miro's love of painting already showed at an early age, when he was enrolled in painting classes at the age of seven. His most emblematic artwork is interpreted as surrealism combined with playfulness. Although he didn't start painting in a surrealist style till 1924, his first paintings were in the Fauvism and Cubism style.

This can be seen in his painting "The Farm", which was painted between 1921 and 1922, and was bought by Ernest Hemingway. Just after painting it, he decided it was time to change his style, and followed on to surrealism. Miro loved to experiment with different art forms, such as water colours, pastels, engravings, ceramics and sculptures. During this period, he received the Guggenheim International Award, for the two ceramic murals which he made for the UNESCO building in Paris "The Wall of the Moon and the Wall of the Sun" in 1957-59.

Answer: Francisco de Zurbaran

Born in the province of Badajoz in Extremadura, Spain, Zurbaran spent most of his artistic life in Seville, where he became the city's official painter. His paintings were mostly painted for the Spanish religious orders, and apart from a few portraits, and some still lifes he dedicated most of his time to religious works.

His most significant trademark was adopting Caravaggio's realistic use of chiaroscuro, especially portrayed on monks and saints in meditation, or in his still life's. The paintings always had very plain dark backgrounds, and the main figures would stand out with very intense light tonal contrasts.

Answer: Salvador Dali

Born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, Salvador Dali, was the son of a well known Catalan notary. His parents gave him the same name as a brother who was born earlier, and died when he was 21 months old. Salvador was born nine months later.

His parents, who could not accept the loss of their previous child, gave Salvador his dead brother's clothes and toys, and reminded him constantly that he would never replace his brother. According to Dali, he somehow came to believe that he was the reincarnation of his older brother. Already as a young boy he was already a talented artist and held his first exhibition in the municipal theatre of his home town when he was only 14.

He was a very skilled and imaginative painter, passing through many phases of Cubism, Futurism and Metaphysical painting.

He joined the Surrealist movement in 1929, his aptitude to attract attention upon himself and his paintings, made him become the most famous Surrealist painter of his era. As years progressed he became a very versatile artist, making sculptures, films, advertising logos and photography, among other art forms.

Answer: Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, is commonly known as Pablo Picasso. He was born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, but for most of his artistic life he lived in France. He was an incredibly talented man, who not only painted, but also was well known for his sculptures, ceramics, stage designs and as a printmaker among other forms of art.

His works were categorized generally into periods, the Blue Period (1901-1904), the Rose Period (1905-1907), the African-influenced Period (1908-1909), and Cubism from 1909 onwards. His early works demonstrated his real talent, painting in a realistic manner. It wasn't until his Cubist period when he played around with different techniques which changed his style of painting completely. His most famous paintings are "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" and "Guernica", portraying the German bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

Answer: Francisco Goya

Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain, in 1746. His paintings reflected the current historical upheavals of the time, and he is considered to be the most influential Spanish painter of the 19th and 20th century. His painting career started in the late Baroque period, and he is often referred to as the "first of the moderns".

His paintings expressed his feelings and thoughts and he wasn't afraid of portraying it in his art work. In his younger years he was happy with his life and the world that surrounded him, but as he matured, he started criticizing the world he lived in, and in his old age he was bitter and disheartened with society. Goya painted for more than 60 years, throughout his life the society and world he lived in had changed completely, and this is portrayed in all of his paintings.

Answer: Luis Melendez

Luis Egidio Meléndez, is today considered to be the greatest Spanish still-life painter, although throughout his life, he never received much acclaim for his works and died in poverty. His works show his ability to play with light, giving life to the most common kitchen objects and food.

He had a passion for painting reflections on the surfaces and edges of tables, as well as his detailed paintings of copper pots making them stand out and bringing them to life. He finally received a royal commission in 1771, from the Prince of Asturias, where he was asked to paint a series of still-lifes, portraying the "Four Seasons of the Year", using food that was produced in Spain as his main subject. Most of his paintings were of small size, painted with great detail with special emphasis on the texture of his subjects.

Answer: El Greco

Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco, was born in 1541 in Candia, Crete, although he is considered the master of Spanish painting. The name of El Greco (The Greek) was given to him by the Spaniards: he arrived in Spain in 1576, and went to Toledo and stayed there till his death in 1614.

At the time, Toledo was the capital and the major centre of artistic, intellectual, and religious life in 16th-century Spain. Although he took to the Spanish lifestyle as his own, he was always proud of his national Greek heritage, which can be seen when he signed his works using the Greek alphabet.

He had a unique style of painting, which didn't have many followers at the time: his paintings are overpowered with colour and seem to be illuminated by a mystical light.

Answer: The Surrender of Breda

Diego Velazquez, was an important portrait artist of the baroque period, and a model other painters of the time. Born in Seville in 1599, he studied art with Francisco Pacheco, whose daughter he later married. Most of Velazquez' artistic life took place in Madrid.

He painted his first painting of King Philip IV at the age of 24, who later became his patron. Most of his paintings deal with the Spanish Royal family and other prominent European families, although they also include landscapes, mythological and religious subjects.

He had a great talent in integrating and mixing the colors with light and space, making a perfect balance.