José García Hidalgo

José García Hidalgo (1645 or 1646 – 1717 or 1719)[1][2] was a Spanish painter, who wrote notes of his life, but omitted to state where and when he was born.

After passing some years under those masters he went to Italy, and at Rome became a scholar of Giacinto Brandi, under whose tuition he made considerable progress.

Pietro da Cortona, Salvator Rosa, and Carlo Maratti assisted him with their counsels; but the climate of Italy proving detrimental to his health, he returned to Spain, where he attached himself to Carreño, and, though far advanced in the art, worked as a young pupil.

In 1674 he went to Madrid, and was employed by Charles II in a series of twenty-four pictures on the life of St. Augustine, for the cloisters of San Felipe el Real, which occupied him, with other commissions from the king, till 1711.

His works included Marie Louise of Orleans (1679) which is now in the Prado, Saint Augustine (1663) and Two Fathers Painting the Virgin (c. 1670–1719, oil on linen: 185 x 146 cm.)