Friday in the atelier: "A Basket of Roses" by Cristobal de Antonio

Today I give you all a mystery – Cristóbal de Antonio, a painter from Spain, who was born in 1870.

The painting I’m showing you is called, “A Basket of Roses.” As always, it is a cropped detail, click on the link for the full painting.

I say that de Antonio is a mystery because I’ve found very little about him on the Internet. I don’t even know when he died!

What I do know is that there seems to be a lot of Cristóbal de Antonio original artwork for sale, at prices that amateur collectors can afford. I found an unframed oil on canvas landscape by de Antonio for sale on Ebay for less than $150. Perhaps it is a scam, but I’m not so sure – I’ve also found reputable galleries selling de Antonio sketches for under $2,000.

What is his story? I really want to know. If you know more about Cristóbal de Antonio, please email me, or leave it in the comments.


This painting attracts me because of the second girl’s eyes. Can you see the playful challenge in them?

4 comments:

John said...

Spot research for artblogging can get surprisingly hard. I like to use the Grove Dictionary of Art on ArtCyclopedia and the personal timelines on ArtNet for biographical info. But there's nothing there for this artist.

Anonymous said...

yes, and of course my local library and University library both have nothing on de Antonio.

I do like mystery, but wow! This is more than I thought!

Anonymous said...

Very nice. What is on the right behind the ladies? Statues?

John said...

From the high-res image, yes, they look like statues. The one on the right might be a fountain, especially in the context of the raised platform immediately behind them.