Name Lorenzo Arrau | Died 1781 | |
Lorenzo de Arrau y Alguer-Suari (1740–1781) belonged to a family of painters and artists from Barcelona famous since the 17th century. He was a Spanish engineer sent to Chile by King Carlos III of Spain.
De Arrau arrived in Chile in 1763, accompanying Juan Garland and Ambrosio O'Higgins (future Marquis of Osorno and Viceroy of Perú and father of Bernardo O'Higgins, the father of the Chilean independence). He married Isabel de Santa María Escobedo y Baeza, and they had six children: Juan (single), Pedro Juan (a down-to-earth rancher and an ancestor of pianist Claudio Arrau), Clara, Juana, Cruz, and Manuela Bárbara (nun).
His son Pedro Juan de Arrau y Santa Maria married Carmen Darroch del Solar, a descendant of Reverend John Darroch (who descended from the Campbells of Craignish, Scotland) and his wife Elspeth Campbell (of the Campbells of Glenorchy, Scotland).
The origins of the Arraus can be found in Barcelona and, further, in France.
One of his descendants is the late Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau.