Today is the anniversary of a nearly unknown spanish landscapes painter: Carlos de Haes.
He was born belgian, but later he became spanish and was one of the main teachers at the San Fernando School of Fine ARts (the most important in Spain). He devoted his life to landscapes, and said:
“Landscape is an art for conneiseurs, as it is hard to paint and to understand. The objective of art is the truth you can find in the imitation of Nature, the font of every beauty, and thus, the artist must imitate as faithfully as possible Nature, must know Nature, and must not allow imagination to carry him away. The painter must go out to the nature to take the first sketches, and finish the canvas at the atelier. Even the canvas may change if nature changes. Every person watches Nature in a different way, so the imitation of it can never take to boredom.”
You may find some pictures of his oils here:
Carlos de Haes 1
Carlos de Haes 2