1851-1896

Luis Ricardo Falero

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Luis Ricardo Falero (1851-1896), a Spanish painter, specialized in painting women and mythological and fantasy subjects. He was also interested in astronomy and celestial constellations and devoted much energy to creating works in this area. Most of his works are oil paintings. His famous works include Moon Nymph, The Balance of the Zodiac, and The Double Star.

Early Dreams

Falero was born in Granada, a city in southern Spain. When he was a teenager, he dreamed of becoming an officer in the Spanish Navy, a dream he eventually abandoned for various reasons, much to the regret of his parents.

Becoming an Artist

After rejuvenating himself, Falero decided to seek a career in Paris, France. With a sudden idea, Falero walked more than a thousand kilometers from his hometown of Granada with perseverance and took more than a month to reach Paris. After arriving in Paris, Falero first enrolled in a school to study chemistry and mechanical engineering. Because of two dangerous experimental accidents, he finally decided to focus on the art of painting and was fortunate to be a student of the French portraitist Gabriel Ferrier.

After his studies, Falero settled in London in the 1880s and devoted his life to the study of female nudes, focusing on mythological subjects and fantasy scenes with an oriental flavor.

Death and Legacy

In 1895, Falero was sued by his maid and model, Maud Harvey. He lost the case and was ordered by a judge to pay Maud Harvey five shillings a month for her maintenance.

At the end of the following year, on December 7, 1896, Falero died of illness at the University Hospital in London when he was 45. Most of Falero’s paintings are kept in the hands of private European collectors, except for a watercolor called The Double Star in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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