AKA José Alvarez de Pereira y Cubero

Born: 1768
Birthplace: Priego, Cordova, Spain
Died: 1827
Location of death: Madrid, Spain
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Sculptor

Nationality: Spain
Executive summary: Court sculptor to Ferdinand VII

Spanish sculptor, born at Priego, in the province of Cordova, in 1768. His full name was José Alvarez de Pereira y Cubero. Bred to his father's trade of a stonemason, he devoted all his spare time to drawing and modelling. His education in art was due partly to the teaching of the French sculptor Verdiguier at Cordova, and partly to lessons at Madrid, where he attended the lectures of the academy of San Fernando. In 1799 he obtained from Charles IV a pension of 12,000 reals to enable him to visit Paris and Rome. In the former city he executed in 1804 a statue of Ganymede, which placed him at once in the front rank of the sculptors.of his time, and which is now in the sculpture gallery of the Prado. Shortly afterwards his pension was more than doubled, and he left Paris for Rome, where he remained until within a year of his death. He had married in Paris Elizabeth Bougel, by whom he had a son in 1805. This son, known as Don José Alvarez y Bougel, also distinguished himself as a sculptor and a painter, but he died at Burgos before he had reached the age of twenty-five, a little more than two years after his father's death in Madrid in 1827. One of the most successful works of the elder Alvarez was a group representing Antilochus and Memnon, which was commissioned in marble (1818) by Ferdinand VII, and secured for the artist the appointment of court-sculptor. It is now in the museum of Madrid. He also modelled a few portrait busts (Ferdinand VII, Gioacchino Rossini, the Duchess of Alba), which are remarkable for their vigor and fidelity.

Wife: Elizabeth Bougel
Son: Don José Alvarez y Bougel (sculptor and painter, b. 1805, d. 1829)

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