Germán Álvarez Algeciras

Germán Álvarez de Algeciras y Jiménez (1 February 1848 – c.1912) was a Spanish costumbrista painter.

Biography He was born in Jerez de la Frontera. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cádiz then, on a scholarship, at the Spanish Academy in Rome from 1871 to 1876 and also at the Academy Chigi in Rome. He came under the influence of Marià Fortuny. His first paintings were portraits of his relatives and still-lifes. He soon turned to genre scenes full of movement which reflected the work of other Spanish painters who had studied in Rome.

His first success came at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1874, with his painting "Return to Golgotha". In 1877, several of his canvases won positive criticism at a showing in Seville. "The King's Jester" was purchased by King Alfonso XII and is now owned by the Patrimonio Nacional.

He married his first cousin, Encarnación Álvarez, from Jimena de la Frontera, where her father (the youngest brother of Juan Álvarez Mendizábal) had established a medical practice. They had only two children, who both died young. He died in his home town of Jerez.

Selected paintings