Francisco Oller

Puerto Rican-born artist

• Born: June 17, 1833
• Birthplace: Bayamón, Puerto Rico
• Died: May 17, 1917
• Place of death: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Oller was a pivotal Latin American figure of the Impressionist art movement, which was dominated by French artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir in the late nineteenth century. His paintings combined European elements with folk scenes from his native Puerto Rico. Many of his renowned works depict the island’s culture and landscapes.

Early Life

Francisco Manuel Oller y Cestero (OH-yehr) was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, in 1833 to an affluent family. He was one of four children born to Cayetano Juan Oller y Fromesta and María del Carmen Cestero Dávila. His paternal grandfather was a doctor who famously introduced the smallpox vaccine to the island and was hailed as a national hero.

Oller began studying art with Juan Cleto Noa when he was twelve years old, but after less than a year of lessons, the teacher declared that he had nothing else to teach his pupil, who had expertly reproduced a painting of his grandfather by renowned Puerto Rican artist José Campeche. Thus, from an early age, Oller displayed an amazing artistic aptitude, a talent that also resulted in his dismissal as a clerk at the Royal Treasury in 1848. After losing his post for drawing unflattering caricatures of his supervisors, he was offered an opportunity to study in Rome. Citing his young age, his mother promptly denied the offer.

At the age of eighteen, Oller traveled to Madrid, Spain, to study art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando with Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz, who later became the director of the Prado Museum. After two years, Oller returned to Puerto Rico, where he stayed for five years before going back to Europe to study art. In 1858, he began studying with Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he became acquainted with Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro.

Life’s Work

Oller was influenced by his time in Europe with Impressionist painters, although he said that he was most affected by the work and technique of Gustave Courbet, with whom he studied art at the Louvre. He had several lengthy stays in Spain and France and traveled back and forth between Europe and Puerto Rico until he settled in his homeland in the 1890’s.

Several of Oller’s works were exhibited alongside paintings by Impressionists Jean-Frédéric Bazille, Monet, Renoir, and Alfred Sisley in 1859. His first significant solo show took place in San Juan in 1868, the year he also married and received permission to open his first art academy. Oller painted many cultural and military leaders in Puerto Rico before producing his most recognizable masterwork, El velorio, which was first displayed at the Paris Salon in 1895. He captured rural life on the island in a scene depicting a child’s wake, and as in many of his paintings, Oller offered commentary on the prevailing social system of his day. While depicting the culture and landscape of Puerto Rico, he also used his art to denounce colonialism and slavery. A talented baritone who sang with the Philharmonic Society of Puerto Rico, Oller also gave concerts when his economic situation necessitated such performances. In addition, he was friends with both Pissarro and Paul Cézanne, the latter of whom was his pupil for a short time but cut ties after a disagreement.

Oller established the Free Academy of Art of Puerto Rico in 1868, and in 1884, he opened the Universidad Nacional, an art school for women. In addition, he was an official court painter for Amadeo I, who ruled Spain from 1870 to 1873. During this time, he also was named a Cabellero de la Orden de Carlos III (Knight of the Order of Carlos III) and exhibited some of his works in Vienna, Austria.

After settling permanently in Puerto Rico, Oller was a drawing professor at the Escuela Normal, which later became the University of Puerto Rico. After two years, he was dismissed in 1904. Little is known about Oller’s later life, which ended in 1917 when he died in San Juan at age eighty-three.

Significance

Oller is considered the only Hispanic Impressionist, although he often is overlooked as an important participant in that art movement. His uniqueness was further defined by his choice to portray realistic native scenes of the culture and landscape of Puerto Rico, including sugar plantations and slaves, among other views of rural life. Offering a commentary on the island’s repressive social system, Oller challenged traditional notions of art as well as prevailing practices of colonialism and slavery. His paintings have been exhibited around the world and are housed in numerous museums, the most famous of which is the Louvre.

Bibliography

Manthorne, Katherine. “Plantation Pictures in the Americas circa 1880: Land, Power, and Resistance.” Nepantla: Views from South 2, no. 2 (May, 2001): 317-353. Discusses Oller’s representations of rural life and its political implications.

Raynor, Vivien. “Art: Francisco Oller, Puerto Rico Glimpsed.” The New York Times, Feb. 10, 1984. Brief review of Oller’s work and a biographical sketch.

Soto-Crespo, Ramón E. “The Pains of Memory: Mourning the Nation in Puerto Rican Art and Literature.” MLN 117, no. 2 (March, 2002): 449-480. Article discusses the importance and centrality of Oller’s most famous work, El velorio. Soto-Crespo argues that this painting metaphorically portrays Puerto Rico as it mourned its failed nationhood.