Antonio Sanchez Araujo


Antonio Sánchez Araujo was a Cuban costumbrista painter, during the early years of the Cuban republic. His paintings have been admired for their strong colorful and definite techniques. He was born in Santa Lucía, Oriente Province, in 1887. He formally started his drawing and painting studies at that institution located in Havana, Cuba.

Early Education

From 1918, he continued his education in Spain, moved from Madrid to Barcelona, and lived one year in each city. Later, he moved to Paris and lived there for three years and completed his education in Europe, thanks to a 5-year scholarship granted by the Congress of the Republic of Cuba. In Paris, he took lessons for three years in the Colarossi and Grande Chaumiere Academies. Zavala reports that part of his training was to copy paintings of the Grand Masters at the Louvre Museum.

Awards and recognitions

During his life he received several recognitions, including the following:
Sanchez Araujo served as the Director of the Free School of Fine Arts, from 1926 to 1929. At the same time, since 1926, he also served as a professor at San Alejandro Academy School.
Sanchez Araujo also had an administrative position at the San Alejandro Academy School as the Assistant Principal of the academy at the same time that he was teaching Drawing of the Ancient Greek. Antonio Sanchez Araujo, died in La Havana, Cuba on September 13, 1946.

His Legacy

Antonio Sanchez Araujo cultivated, with special preference, the landscape and portrait genres, in addition to popular artworks.
In Miami, his work was presented in the Bacardi Gallery, in the Exhibit titled Pintura y Litografia Cubanas, in 1988. The Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona Beach presented one of his works during 2005. “La Rumba”. Several Galleries in Florida and Mexico City also exhibited some of his work.