Pascual Ortega Portales
Pascual Ortega Portales (December 5, 1839 – December 22, 1899) was a notable Chilean painter. His art fits into the categories of romanticism and realism. Biography. Ortega Portales was born in a wealthy family. At 14 years old he was sent to Europe to study art. Studied there from 1854 to 1864 at the with Alejandro Ciccarelli. In 1868 he received a scholarship from the Chilean government for a stay in Europe and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Alexandre Cabanel and Hippolyte Taine. During this time Ortega Portales also visited Italy, Spain, Belgium  and Germany.After a ten-years sojourn in Europe he settled in Santiago of Chile, where he painted portraits and Italian scene from memory. Intessive training permitted him resolve any genre with Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier in perspective allowed him to experiment in monumental compositions. His solid academic training of painting, but he was unfamiliar with the refinement of the European masters who were the model of reference for figurative painting. The rigidity of his characters and strident colors were criticized by his contemporaries and prevented him from joining the faculty al the School of Fine Arts. His paintings have  been exhibited in Chile, Argentina and France, among others. In the 1882 South American Continental Exhibition in Buenos Aires, he received the second prize. Several of his works are in the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts.