Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (pronounced mure-IL-oh or m(y)uu-REE-oh; born late December 1617, baptized 1 January 1618 – died 3 April 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. He is most famous for his religious paintings, but he also created many works showing everyday women and children. These lively, realistic portraits of flower sellers, street kids, and beggars provide a detailed record of daily life in his era. He also made two self-portraits: one from his thirties, held by the Frick Collection, and another from about twenty years later, at London’s National Gallery. In 2017–18, these two museums exhibited the portraits together.

Murillo was likely born in December 1617 to Gaspar Esteban, a skilled barber surgeon, and María Pérez Murillo. He may have been born in Seville or in the smaller Andalusian town of Pilas. What is certain is that he was baptized in 1618 at Santa Maria Magdalena, a Seville parish. After his parents died in 1627 and 1628, his older sister Ana and her husband, Juan Agustín Lagares—also a barber—became his guardians. Murillo stayed close to them and lived in their home until his marriage in 1645. Eleven years later, despite his sister having already died, he was named executor of Lagares’ will. Murillo rarely used his father’s surname, instead taking his mother’s family name from his maternal grandmother, Elvira Murillo.

Few documents survive about Murillo’s early life or how he became a painter. In 1633, at age 15, he received a license to travel to America with his family. He likely began his artistic training around that time or slightly earlier. He studied in Seville in the workshop of Juan del Castillo, his uncle and godfather, who was a skilled painter. Castillo’s work was marked by dry sketches and tender expressions, which influenced Murillo’s early pieces. His first works also showed the influence of Francisco de Zurbarán, Jusepe de Ribera, and Alonso Cano, sharing their strong realism. Because Seville was a major commercial hub, Murillo was exposed to art from other regions, including Flemish painting and the “Treatise on Sacred Images” by Molanus (Ian van der Meulen or Molano). As his style matured, his more important works took on a polished look that appealed to bourgeois and aristocratic tastes, especially in his Catholic religious pieces.

According to painter and art historian Antonio Palomino, Murillo left Castillo’s workshop once he felt skilled enough. In 1642, at 26, he supposedly traveled to Madrid, where he likely encountered the work of Velázquez and Francisco de Palacios; the rich colors and soft modeling in his later work suggest these influences. It is possible that, like many Sevillian painters, he drew on religious images to attract the lucrative American market, but there is little evidence he actually went to Madrid. Similar claims by German historian Joachim von Sandrart say Murillo also visited Italy during this period. Palomino denied this, arguing that foreigners refused to believe his success came from Spain alone. Instead, Palomino claimed Murillo’s skill came from hours spent alone in his room studying nature. He then used these skills for public works, for Franciscan convents across Spain, and for fellow painters who had not known of his art. In any case, his style could have been learned without leaving Seville from earlier artists like Zurbarán or Francisco de Herrera the Elder.

In 1645, Murillo returned to Seville and married Beatriz Cabrera y Villalobos. They eventually had ten children, but only five outlived their mother. Only one son, Gabriel (1655–1700), later became a painter. That same year, Murillo received his first major commission: eleven canvases for the convent of San Francisco in Seville, which he worked on from 1645 to 1648. These paintings showed stories of Franciscan saints that were rarely depicted at the time. He focused on praising lives of contemplation and prayer, as seen in works like *Saint Francis Comforted by an Angel*. His pieces ranged from the dark, tenebrist style of *Ecstasy of St Francis* to the soft, luminous style of *Death of St Clare*, which became typical of his mature work. Art historian Manuela B. Mena Marqués noted that in works such as *The Angels’ Kitchen* and *Death of St Clare*, Murillo’s characteristic elements are already clear: elegant, beautiful female figures and angels, realistic still-life details, and a blend of reality and the spiritual world. In *Saint Diego Giving Alms*, he placed subjects on parallel planes against a black background, with a group of children around a boiling pot bathed in heavenly light. This combined tenebrism and luminosity to highlight the glory of helping the needy and innocent. Around 1645, he also completed the first of his many paintings.