Alejandro Bonilla

A close friend to the founding fathers of Dominican independence, “La Trinitaria”, Juan Pablo Duarte, Matías Ramón Mella, and Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, he was the first to paint their portraits and one of the signatories of the Manifesto of January 16, 1844.

[2] Around this time, Bonilla, in his late teen years, traveled to Venezuela after the political situation in Dominican Republic intensified, living there throughout the 1840s while continuing art lessons.

[1] He suffered ostracism during the period known as the "Six Years of Báez", resulting in his exile to Caracas in 1868, where he entered the workshop of an Italian painter specializing in portrait painting, learning under his guidance.

In Caracas, he made his living off commissioned portraits and teaching; later, under the protection of Venezuelan President Falcón, who held him in high esteem, he established a painting school.

[3] Upon arriving in his hometown, Bonilla establishes a workshop in his home, which survives today as a historical landmark named "La Casa del Pintor" (The Painter's House).