Birthplace of Valentín Sanz

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1849

In this house no. 15 on Santa Rosalía street, the painter Valentín Sanz Carta (1849-1898), one of the most renowned artists born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, was born on 27 February 1849. Despite his short life, his pictorial evolution was spectacular, beginning on the island under romantic premises, then transforming into a fervent realist painter during his stay on the peninsula, and ending as a great master of light, standing out as a pre-Impressionist in his final stage developed in Cuba.

Valentín Sanz was the first of five children of a middle-class family from Santa Cruz. From a young age, he stood out for his drawing skills, receiving training at the Provincial Academy of Fine Arts of Santa Cruz de Tenerife under the tutelage of Nicolás Alfaro (1826-1905) and Cirilo Truilhé (1813-1904), excelling as an excellent landscapist. In 1875, at 25 years old, he was granted a scholarship by the Provincial Council to further his studies at the Special School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving in Madrid, where he was a disciple of Carlos de Haes (1826-1898) and Federico Madrazo (1815-1894). From 1881 he resided in Cuba, where he arrived as part of a scientific expedition to study Antillean flora, sponsored by the then Overseas Minister, the Gran Canarian Fernando León y Castillo. It was on the Antillean island that Valentín Sanz reached his maturity as an artist. He died on 1 October 1898 in New York, a victim of scarlet fever, during a trip made with his wife to the USA.

His magnificent work is preserved in the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes de Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Municipal Museum of Fine Arts of Santa Cruz de Tenerife), in numerous private collections, as well as in several American institutions.

On 11 July 1988, with the highest honours, the ashes of Valentín Sanz were transferred from the chapel of the Santa Lastenia cemetery, where they had been deposited upon arrival from New York, to the Pantheon of Illustrious Men of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Thus, the wishes expressed by the artist to rest for eternity in the land where he was born were fulfilled.

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