ULPIANO CHECA Y SANZ (Spanish, 1860 - 1916). Cavalier, Signed U. Checa lower left. Oil on canvas. Framed. - Sight: 20.75 by 16 in. Estimate $4,000-6,000
PROVENANCE Sotheby's, London, The Travel Sale: Meditteranean and the Middle East, 17 October 2001, Lot 182
ARTIST PROFILE: Ulpiano Fernandez-Checa y Sanz, known as Ulpiano Checa, was a Spanish painter, sculptor, poster designer and illustrator. He used both impressionistic and academic techniques, and mainly painted historical subjects. In 1873, he entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, followed by study at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome , where he would paint Invasion of the Barbarians (since lost in a fire) which won the gold medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1887. In 1884, he obtained a pension that enabled him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. A year later, during the final year of his pension, he travelled to Paris and participated in the Salon of the Champs Elysees with his version of The Rape of Proserpina, causing dissent within the Spanish Academy. After completing his studies, he applied for another pension for the Academy in Rome, but it was awarded to Mariano Benlliure.
