Benet Mercadé

[1] In 1838, he moved to Barcelona, where he worked as a shoemaker's assistant while beginning his studies at the Escola de la Llotja, doing some occasional ornamental painting and making daguerrotypes.

In 1858, he participated in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, presenting two major works, one on Don Quixote and one on Columbus, the latter of which gained an "honorable mention".

[2] From 1863 to 1869, he lived in Rome [2] where he frequented the Antico Caffè Greco, meeting with other painters and writers from Spain such as Dióscoro Puebla, José Casado del Alisal, Eduardo Rosales, Vicente Palmaroli, Marià Fortuny and Alejo Vera.

He returned to Barcelona because of his increasingly poor eyesight, and eventually had to stop painting, but still obtained a full professorship at the Escola in 1882.

[1] He was initially influenced by the Nazarene movement, but later switched to Realism,[2] focusing on religious and historic themes.