Municipal Museum of Fine Arts

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Cultural spaces · Subcategory: Museums · Year: 1899

The first record of the formation of a municipal museum dedicated to the arts is found in a suggestion made in 1898 by the journalist and writer Patricio Estévanez to Luis Maffiote, a resident in Madrid with good connections to several ministries, to obtain a dozen paintings " that would serve as a base to start a small local museum ". The following year, Pedro Tarquis and Teodomiro Robayna, professors at the Municipal Academy of Drawing, had independently formed a collection of art pieces, informing the Town Hall that they hoped for some subsidy to allow its maintenance and expansion. Thus, the embryonic Museum was created, attached to the Municipal Academy of Drawing. Tarquis was appointed honorary director and Robayna director-curator. However, the premises were not suitable.

A few years later, the construction of a house museum behind the Santa Cecilia building, today the Parliament of the Canary Islands, was considered, a project that never materialised. In 1908, the collection was installed in a few rooms that had become free in the old convent of San Francisco.

Gradually, the pieces increased. In 1913, the Ministry of Education sent a shipment of artworks. Somewhat later, about twenty paintings were donated from the estate of Nicolás Alfaro, and then works by recognised local artists were acquired, such as the purchase of eight canvases by the painter Valentín Sanz.

In 1933, construction began on the building where the Museum is currently located, facilities that have been renovated and expanded on numerous occasions over the years.

The Municipal Museum of Fine Arts of Santa Cruz currently houses notable works, especially from the 19th century, as well as holding a collection loaned by the Museo del Prado with paintings by artists of the calibre of Sorolla or Ferrant and sculptures by Benlliure and Querol. The largest and most complete representation of its collections, logically, corresponds to Canarian artists, making it an essential place to appreciate the art that has developed in the city throughout its history.

Over the years, the Museum has acquired its own personality and has actively participated in the cultural life of the city, not only through what it preserves but also through its parallel activities in the field of exhibitions and lectures.

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