Fernando Cabrera Canto

Fernando Cabrera Cantó was a Spanish painter from Alcoy whose work ranges from sunny garden scenes and portraits to dark subjects with a strong social message. He painted landscapes, genre scenes and portraits, and his brushwork owes something to Fortuny and Pinazo.

He was born in Alcoy in 1866 and studied at the Real Academia de San Carlos in Valencia under Lorenzo Casanova, then in Madrid and in Italy on a scholarship. He won prizes at Spain’s National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1890 and 1906 and medals at the Paris Exposition of 1900 and the San Francisco exposition of 1915. He spent most of his career in Alcoy, where he taught at the School of Arts and Crafts and collaborated on the Art Nouveau Casa del Pavo. He died there in 1937.

In pictures like Escena en el Jardín, look at the dappled light, typical of Valencian painting of the time.