Adolfo Águila Acosta

Adolfo del Águila y Acosta (Spanish, c. 1860 – c. 1912) was from a family of Spanish painters active in the cities of Jerez and Cádiz. His father Adolfo del Águila y Pimentel (1830 – 1895) was well decorated for his still lifes, portraits, and genre paintings, as was his brother Luis (1860 –1920).

 

Adolfo is best known for his images of Spanish beauties in traditional dress, a subject he was productive with especially after 1900. Like his father and brother, he also produced a number of genre scenes. These took romanticized visions of Spain’s past and present as their subjects, looking, for example, to middle and lower-class celebrations in the countryside. Other times, he might produce Rococo revival images of the grandeur of eighteenth-century aristocratic pastimes.

 

Along with his father, Adolfo exhibited in several exhibitions, including the 1880 Cádiz Exhibition. In 1886, he was teaching drawing and painting in the Calle Guadalete in Jerez de la Frontera. By 1909 he was a professor at the Escuela Superior de Artes Industriales y Bellas artes de Cádiz and in 1911 he is recorded teaching at Calle San José.

 

He was married to Elena Mendoza y Carisomo who died in 1905, and Adolfo died soon after. His son José Aguila y Mendoza emigrated to Argentina in 1912 following his father’s death.

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