Pedro Lira

Pursuing an interest in art, he enrolled at the Academy of Painting (Santiago, Chile), which was under the direction of Alejandro Ciccarelli, a noted Neoclassical painter from Italy.

[3] In 1872, he won a medal at a competition celebrating the establishment of the Mercado Central de Santiago, organized by Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna.

Encouraged by this, he was able to obtain a grant to study in Europe, going there with his wife in the company of his friend and future brother-in-law, Alberto Orrego Luco.

But, despite his successes, he decided to return to Chile, as the time appeared ripe to create an artistic milieu comparable to that in Paris.

Among the best known painters whose careers he supported are Pablo Burchard, Pedro Reszka Moreau and Celia Castro, the first Chilean woman to become a notable artist.