Esteban Valderrama Peña

An academic creator in the field of Plastic Arts, in genres such as landscape, group or individual portraits, sculptures, in which he approached more everyday characters.

He was born in Matanzas. At age 15, he demonstrated notable aptitude for art and was sponsored in 1906 by the Provincial Government of Matanzas to enter the Academy of San Alejandro in the capital.

With high marks, he left for Europe in 1908 to complete his studies at the Spanish and French academies. He attended as a student at the Academy of Fine Arts San Fernando in Madrid and later, in 1911, at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, from which he graduated with the title of Eléve Definit.

During his "Parisian period," he received his first significant award when in 1915 he was given the prize in the Competition for the Cover of the literary magazine Mundial, directed by Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío. He graduated as a Doctor in Philosophy and Letters and in Pedagogy. One of the most important moments of his work was the creation, in 1917, of the provincial coat of arms of Matanzas.

At the beginning of World War II in 1914, he returned to the Island with a copious body of paintings and drawings and settled in the capital, where he worked for El Heraldo de Cuba, then directed by the prestigious journalist Manuel Márquez Sterling. At this publication he worked as an illustrator, publishing in Sunday editions full-page portraits of our heroes of independence.

His skill in this genre transformed him into a great portrait artist, whose desire to reproduce reality linked him to academic concepts, especially when it came to commissioned portraits of an official nature.
Selection of Exhibitions

In 1915 he exhibited the Fundamental painting of broad decorative conception that won the first prize. In 1916 he entered the Vida competition which he later took to France and which was very well received. He entered another competition in 1918 and obtained a grant that he could not attend due to work commitments at the Academy of San Alejandro, of which he was director for a time.

Valderrama's palette became freer when he recreated genres such as landscape or in those group or individual portraits in which he approached more everyday characters, particularly different members of his family. On such occasions the academicist gave way to a more creative artist, whose influences from certain avant-garde principles, such as impressionism, are clearly perceptible. His excellent work in Cuban Guajiros, Hard Earth, and Nude, all from the thirties, stands out in this regard.

He also excels in his decorative work, created for the Presidential Palace, now the Museum of the Revolution, for which he painted Pomona and Mercury. He assisted Armando García Menocal in painting the platter of the Reception Hall, painted the ceiling of the Hall of Ambassadors, where he executed The Flag of Narciso López and by order of the President of the Republic, Fulgencio Batista at that time, he created The Age of Finlay. He also created sculptures and busts of patriots such as Rafael Morales y González, placed in the park of the Palace of Justice in the city of Pinar del Río on January 28, 1926.

Among his best-known portraits are that of José Martí, created in 1938 for the Cuban embassy in Mexico and permanently displayed in the National Palace of the sister country, that of chess player José Raúl Capablanca (1940), and that of American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1945), who posed for the artist on more than one occasion.

A sample of his work can be appreciated in the Provincial Historical Archive of Matanzas, where some of his portraits of personalities from our history are preserved. Other works by him are treasured in the collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of the Revolution, the Museum of the City in Havana, and the Provincial Museum of Matanzas.

He received honorary distinctions.
He died in Havana on April 14, 1964.