Rafael Esteve

Rafael Esteve Vilella (1 July 1772, Valencia - 1 October 1847, Madrid) was a Spanish engraver in the Romantic style.

Among his most engravings are illustrations for the first sextodecimo edition of Don Quixote, prepared and edited at the Royal Printers from 1797 to 1798; the "Vista of the Teatro Seguntino, Taken from the Stands", after a drawing by Manuel Camaron i Melià [ca], for Architectural and Antiquarian Travels in Spain (1807); and the portraits of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII and their respective spouses, José de Palafox with his officers, and posthumous depictions of Francisco Pizarro, Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas and Jerónimo Gracián, which he created for Portraits of Illustrious Spaniards.

In 1839, he received the greatest honor of his career in the form of a gold medal at the Exposition des produits de l'industrie française, for his burin etching of Moses Striking Water from a Rock; after a painting by Bartolomé Murillo, the execution of which involved living in Seville for a time.

He was also awarded a cross in the Order of Charles III and named Honorary Director of the Academia de San Carlos.

In a letter to his son dated January 17, 1828, Goya signs with the postscript "«To Don Rafael Esteve a thousand thing, that I often remember.