Fernando Calderón

Santander, 1928 - 2003.

Since his childhood he excelled for his skill at drawing and composition, and received the praise of painters of the stature of Picasso, Cocteau, Sert and Zuloaga.

He trained at the San Fernando Royal academy of Fine Arts in Madrid and at the Spanish Academy in Rome, where his legacy includes a major mural work which he left to the city, as well as his painting works from his time in Rome which he bequeathed to the Vatican Museum.

He travelled around Europe, where his projects included scenery and figurines from the “Ishtar” Russian Ballet, with music by Rachmaninoff, an experience he repeated in 1976 for a number of stage performances by the Rhine Opera in Strasbourg. His work was exhibited prodigiously, at individual and collective shows, taking him around the world: Madrid, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Malaga, New York, London, Río de Janeiro, Paris, …

He was always recognised as a mural painter, and, among many other works, he painted the walls of the Hotel Castellana Hilton in Madrid, the Provincial Assembly and Municipal Government Offices of Santander, or the Pantheon Church of the Duke and Duchess of Alba in Loeches (Madrid), his most famous work.

He illustrated pages of publications such as ABC, Proel and Peñalabra, and books such as “Siete cuentos en la Antigüedad” by Antonio Ribera, or the book of poems “Dos dedos en la frente” by Carlos Murciano, for which he made a folder of engravings. Fame and unanimous acclaim made him a standard-bearer for the UEE Collection since 1981, when he painted “Joven india” (Young Indian Girl).

A member of the Brazilian Fine Arts Academy since 1970, he held the Velázquez chair alongside Bernard Buffet, in France, and Henry Moore, in the UK. Years later, in 1975 he received further major recognition in the form of the first prize for painting at the International Biennial for Sport in Fine Arts.

1981 Fernando Calderón Young indian woman Oil on canvas 125 x 100 cm.