View source for Carmelo Fernández

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox artist
|name              = Carmelo Fernández Páez
|image             = Carmelo Fernandez 1809-1887.jpg
|image_size        = 250px
|caption           =
|birth_name        = June 30, 1809
|birth_place       = Spain<br /> Guama, [[Yaracuy]], [[Captaincy General of Venezuela]], [[Spanish Empire]]
|death_date        = {{death date and age|1887|2|9|1809|6|30}}
|death_place       = Venezuela<br /> [[Caracas]], Venezuela
|residence        =
|nationality       = Venezuelan
|style             = Lithographer and watercolorist
|education         =
}}

'''Carmelo Fernández Páez''' was a Venezuelan engineer, soldier, cartoonist, [[lithographer]] and watercolorist.<ref name="Personajes">{{cite web |url=http://www.yaracuy.com.ve/personajes/ |title=Personajes de Yaracuy: Carmelo Fernández |access-date=September 20, 2011 |language=Spanish |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006015328/http://www.yaracuy.com.ve/personajes/ |archivedate=October 6, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="Vida">{{cite web|url=http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/exhibiciones/america_exotica/biografias/carmelofernandez.htm |title=Fernández, Carmelo |access-date=September 20, 2011 |author=América Exótica |language=Spanish |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106155351/http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/exhibiciones/america_exotica/biografias/carmelofernandez.htm |archivedate=November 6, 2013 }}</ref> He was born in the town of Guama, [[Yaracuy|Yaracuy State]], on June 30, 1809 and died in [[Caracas]] on February 9, 1887.<ref name="Comisión">{{cite web|url=http://www.bibliotecanacional.gov.co/recursos_user/exposicionesvirtuales/comision_corografica/los-protagonistas.html|title=Protagonistas de la Comisión Corográfica|access-date=September 20, 2011|publisher=Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia|language=Spanish|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120820195834/http://www.bibliotecanacional.gov.co//recursos_user/exposicionesvirtuales/comision_corografica/los-protagonistas.html|archive-date=August 20, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Recuento">{{cite web |url=http://www.colarte.com/recuentos/F/FernandezCarmelo/recuento.htm |title=Carmelo Fernández |access-date=September 20, 2011 |author=Carmen Ortega Ricaurte |language=Spanish |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923225830/http://www.colarte.com/recuentos/F/FernandezCarmelo/recuento.htm |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=b1>{{cite book|last1=Paz Castillo|first1=Fernando|last2=Rojas Guardia|first2=Pablo|title=Diccionario de las arte plásticas en Venezuela|date=1973|publisher=Gráficas Armitano, C. A.|location=Caracas|pages=302}}</ref><ref name=b2>{{cite book|last1=Hernández Caballero|first1=Serafín|title=Gran Enciclopedia de Venezuela|date=1998|publisher=Editorial Globe, C.A.|location=Caracas}}</ref>

== Biography ==
His parents were José María Fernández and Luisa Páez, sister of general [[José Antonio Páez]].<ref name="Recuento"/> As the nephew of a General,<ref name="Personajes"/> he became familiar with the events and personalities of the [[Spanish American wars of independence]] at an early age.<ref name="Comisión"/> From 1821 to 1823, he studied drawing and watercolors at a studio operated by a retired French artillery captain named Lessabe (or Lasabe) in Caracas. He then went to New York City, where he continued his education with [[Mariano Velazquez de la Cadena]] and others.<ref name="Vida"/><ref name="Recuento"/> When he returned to Venezuela in 1827, he studied mathematics and topographical drawing at the Army Engineering Command in [[Puerto Cabello]], and was later stationed in [[Bogotá]] and [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena]].<ref name="Vida"/> During this period he participated in the punitive expedition under [[Daniel Florence O'Leary]] that went to [[Antioquia Department|Antioquia]] to suppress the revolt of General [[José María Córdova]] against the dictatorship of [[Simón Bolívar]].<ref name="Recuento"/>

After the breakup of [[Gran Colombia]], he was invited by the Italian geographer [[Agustín Codazzi]] to participate in creating a survey map of Venezuela.<ref name="Comisión"/> This work lasted from 1833 to 1839, during which time he made miniatures and engravings to include with the maps.<ref name="Vida"/> He went to Paris with Codazzi in 1840 to oversee the printing of the maps by Thierry Frères, a well-known lithography firm, where Codazzi published the ''Atlas físico y político de la República de Venezuela''.<ref name="Vida"/> On the same trip, he developed some of the drawings for the ''Resumen de la historia de Venezuela'' by [[Rafael María Baralt]] and Ramón Díaz.<ref name="Vida"/>
[[File:Carmelo Fernandez 05.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Cover of the "Physical and Political Atlas of Venezuela", drawn by Fernández. (1840)]]
In 1842, the Venezuelan government appointed a commission to repatriate the remains of Simón Bolívar from [[Santa Marta]], an event that Fernandez recorded with about twenty drawings.<ref name="Vida"/> Several of them were lithographed by the firm of Aagard, Müller and Stapler in 1844.

Due to the strong enmity between his uncle, the General, and [[José Tadeo Monagas]], the General's friends and family were persecuted so Fernández had to go into exile in 1849, to [[Republic of New Granada|New Granada]].<ref name="Comisión"/> In 1850, upon the recommendation of Codazzi, he was appointed to the "[[Chorography|Comisión Corográfica]]",<ref name="Recuento"/> where he provided illustrations for descriptions written by the historian [[Manuel Ancízar]].<ref name="Comisión"/> He was, according to critics, the most qualified of the three painters who participated in the commission because he combined a skill for painting miniatures with a knowledge of topography.<ref name="Vida"/><ref name="Comisión"/><ref name="Recuento"/> The prints he made during the project numbered about thirty,<ref name="Vida"/><ref name="Recuento"/> and are divided thematically into landscapes of natural phenomena, sites of historical and archaeological significance, roads, ethnic groups and customs.<ref name="Comisión"/> He resigned from this position in 1852, due to disagreements with the other members, and returned to Venezuela.<ref name="Recuento"/>

Shortly after, he traveled to France to perfect his skills. He stayed there for a few years, then came back to Caracas to take an appointment as Director of the Institute of Fine Arts,<ref name="Recuento"/> a position he held until his death in 1887. Between 1870 and 1873, he created a series of [[tempera]] landscapes of [[Zulia|Zulia State]].<ref name="Vida"/> He also decorated the Paéz's home in [[Valencia, Venezuela|Valencia]] as well as designing the "Plaza de Bolívar" in [[Maracaibo]] and planning restorative work on [[Solano Castle]] in Puerto Cabello.<ref name="Personajes"/>

His most famous work is his portrait of Bolivar, painted in 1873 and later used on several denominations of the [[Venezuelan Bolívar]] banknote.<ref name="Personajes"/>

== Selected drawings and paintings ==
<gallery class="center" widths="145" heights="145">
Carmelo Fernandez 00.JPG|''San Pedro Alejandrino Farm''. 1848. Oil on canvas
Carmelo Fernandez 01.JPG|''The Andes''. Tempera on paper. 180 x 143&nbsp;cm., collection of the government of Zulia
Carmelo Fernandez 02.JPG|''The Lake''. Tempera on paper. 180 x 143&nbsp;cm., collection of the government of Zulia
Carmelo Fernandez 03.JPG|''Peasant Encampment''. 180 x 143&nbsp;cm., collection of the government of Zulia
Carmelo Fernandez 06.jpg|''Muleteer and Hat Weaver in [[Vélez, Santander|Vélez]]''. 1850. watercolor. [[National Library of Colombia]]
Carmelo Fernandez 07.jpg|''Palm-Hat Weavers and Sellers in [[Bucaramanga]]''. 1850. watercolor. National Library of Colombia
Carmelo Fernandez 08.jpg|''Notables of the Capital''. 1851. watercolor. National Library of Colombia
Carmelo Fernandez 04.JPG|''Páez Receives the Sword Granted to Him by the Nation''. 1843. Lithograph on paper. Collection of the John Boulton Foundation, Caracas
</gallery>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Carmelo Fernández}}
* [https://archive.today/20120628235409/http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/publicacionesbanrep/boletin/boleti5/bol28/colom.htm Colombia en cuatro tiempos: Carmelo Fernández 1809–1887].

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Carmelo}}
[[Category:Venezuelan painters]]
[[Category:People from Yaracuy]]
[[Category:1809 births]]
[[Category:1887 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at the National Pantheon of Venezuela]]