Alberto Valenzuela Llanos

Biography

Valenzuela Llanos was born in the province of Colchagua, Chile, in the city of San Fernando. He was the son of a formerly wealthy family in decline - his parents, Florencia Valenzuela Llanos and Ricardo Lira, were cousins who belonged to a family with a long landowning and military tradition, where intermarriage was common. No explicit records remain to explain why the family was gradually falling into poverty. In his youth, Valenzuela Llanos was always interested in nature and enjoyed strolling through the grounds and admiring the countryside. He often made sketches of trees and colours and was known as respectable young gentleman.

He studied at public school and went to high school at a liceo (a public high school specialising in sciences and humanities). As the financial situation of his family got steadily worse, the young Alberto decided to work in the local textile store. He felt trapped in that environment but tried to accept his fate, knowing his family situation. At the age of 17, bored during a quiet day at the shop, he started drawing lilies on a piece of fabric. The store owner saw the drawings and, annoyed but impressed, showed the ruined fabric to the boy's father.

His father was amazed at Alberto’s talent and decided that the boy was born to be an artist. He managed to convince his brother to let his son live in his house in the Chilean capital, Santiago so he could study simultaneously at the Instituto Nacional General Jose Miguel Carrera and the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts. Luckily for Alberto, the new director of the Academy was Juan Mochi, who, unlike previous Academy directors, tried to encourage his students to develop a unique style and did not care if they used unconventional artistic techniques. This enabled Llanos to dedicate the rest of life and career to painting the subject he loved most: landscapes.

Valenzuela Llanos produced textured, subtle and simple landscapes using pinks and greens. His paintings of the spring are a faithful record of the morning light. The size of his canvases is particularly notable and is well above the average for the period. Experience of financial difficulties taught him to produce many paintings in a short time, so his work ended up being widely distributed around Chile. He liked to portray landscapes of everyday life in the capital city and began with Lo Contador (now Pedro de Valdivia Norte street in Providencia), the mountains of the Cajon del Maipo to the south of Santiago, and the coast of Algarrobo.

The personality of Valenzuela Llanos was calm and serene and his main hobby was painting with oils. He never felt influenced by the bohemian atmosphere of the time, keeping his distance from political conflicts, and was always concerned about the welfare of his parents, siblings and friends in his hometown, taking the train to Colchagua whenever he had the chance to visit his relatives.

His painting evolved quickly thanks to the direction of Mochi and he began specialising in oil painting and using more and more sketches, drawing designs before starting on the painting itself. Most importantly, he was able to develop a personal style, the product of need and of effort. This earned him early recognition, and in 1889 he gained a place in the “Salon official de Santiago” (the official Santiago salon or exhibition hall). The following year he won a bronze medal at the annual salon contest, with more awards and recognition following quickly afterwards: in 1890, one of his paintings was featured in the Salon de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, something that few Latin American artists had achieved. Then, in 1891, he won an award at an exhibition in the United States and the Chilean government gave him a scholarship to study in Paris in exchange for some years of teaching .

With no hesitation, Valenzuela Llanos accepted the scholarship and went to France to study with Jean-Paul Laurens, who had taught other Chilean painters such as Alberto Orrego Luco and Alfredo Valenzuela Puelma, in the Academie Julian. There, he learned about impressionism and expressionism and had an extremely productive period, producing many paintings of Paris at dawn. In 1913, his efforts would win him an award at the Salon de peinture et de sculpture in 1913.

Thanks to the support of the Chilean government, Valenzuela Llanos was able to travel regularly throughout Europe between 1901 and 1906, giving him the chance to visit Spain, Italy and England as well as France, where he continued to study.

Finally, in 1906, he returned home to Chile and was hired to teach drawing at the Liceo Miguel Luis Amunategui high school in Santiago. In 1910, he married Julia Montero, a young student. After that he was hired to succeed Fernando Alvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza as professor of painting at the School of Fine Arts, where he taught for a couple of years.

Valenzuela Llanos taught his students in the same way he was taught himself, trying to encourage them to develop their own style. He was beloved by his students and pushed them to walk around Santiago and visit the most famous places.

He died in Santiago in July 23, 1925. Currently, most of his paintings are in private collections, but some of his most famous works are in the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts, the Central Bank of Chile, the Casa del Arte in Concepcion and the O’Higgins Historical Museum in Talca.

Awards and distinctions

Selected list of Alberto Valenzuela Llanos works