Artists of past and present ARTISTS OF PAST AND PRESENT | Page 94

JULIO ROMERO DE TORRES
Was a Spanish painter known for the thematic costumbrista,
flamenco, bullfighting and copla of his works.
Son of the also painter Rafael Romero Barros, curator of the
Museum of Fine Arts of Córdoba, began his apprenticeship under
the orders of his father at the School of Fine Arts of Córdoba at
the age of ten. Thanks to his eagerness to learn, he lived intensely
the cultural life of Cordoba in the late nineteenth century and
knew from very young all the dominant artistic movements of that
time.
He is buried in the cemetery of San Rafael in his native city.
LA CHIQUITA PICONERA
The Little Piconera is the best-known painting and considered the
masterpiece of the painter Julio Romero de Torres. Completed in
1930, shortly before the death of the painter, it is a painting of
100x80 cm painted in oil and tempera on canvas.
It represents a scene in the interior of a humble room, where a
young girl sitting on a enea chair is advancing on a brazier and
holds in her right hand a copper palette with which she moves the
Picon.
The model of the painting, a young woman of 13 to 14 years old,
was María Teresa López who also served as model. The work was
reproduced by the National Factory of Currency and Stamp in a
stamp of 5 pesetas.