Background

De Tejada was born in Tangier, Morocco, on June 22, 1897. He was the son of the diplomat, Carlos Sáenz de Tejada y Groizard, and his wife, María de Lezama González del Campillo. His family came from the old aristocracy.

Education

Carlos Sáenz de Tejada started his learning of art in Oran in 1908 under the guidance of painter Daniel Cortés. In 1911 he continued his studies at Madrid’s School for the Promotion of Arts with such masters as José María López Mezquita and Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor. The same year, he held his first exhibition during a summer visit to Oran. Since 1916 he was a student of The San Fernando School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving (the present-day San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts), and in 1920 de Tejada received a scholarship from Residencia de El Paular. Having won a scholarship, he went to Paris.

Career

De Tejada's fashion drawings helped to publicize the image of the stylish, elegant and sporty woman of the thirties. Many of his designs were published in La Esfera (1916-1931), Nuevo Mundo (1925-1927), Por Esos Mundos (1925-1926), Cosmópolis (1929-1930), Blanco y Negro, as well as ABC newspaper.

Carlos Sáenz de Tejada lived in Paris from 1926 until 1935. It was during that time that he developed his talent as a fashion artist, eventually becoming an internationally-renowned figure, working for world-known magazines, including Femina, Vogue, Jardins des Modes and Harper’s Bazaar. At the same time, he made his first steps in advertising posters by promoting the Spanish Ballet by Antonia Mercé called "la Argentinita".

When he returned to Madrid, the artist continued to contribute to the Prensa Española publishing group and to such magazines as Vértice. He became the creative pillar on which the new regime built its ideational structure in the wake of the Civil War. It was proved by the illustrations de Tejada made from 1939 to 1950 for the Banco Central calendar. After the war, Carlos Sáenz de Tejada produced a peasant scene for the 1940 version of the explosive company’s calendar.

Over the years, he created illustrations for such works as Don Juan Tenorio (1946) by Zorrilla, Los intereses creados (1950) by Jacinto Benavente, or Platero y yo (1957) by Juan Ramón Jiménez. He produced them in a variety of styles (costumbrista, epic-naturalist, and even neo-cubist). The artist combined this work with that of art director of companies, including Fournier.

During these years de Tejada restored and created mural decorations for a number of institutions in Vitoria, Madrid’s Valley of the Fallen and the Agricultural Research Institute at Madrid’s university campus. These works testified to his evolution towards a regionalist style influenced by Zuloaga and the Zubiaurres. His eclectic spirit enabled him to grow without refusing any technical-expressive opportunity.

In the latter years of his life, he was a professor at the Madrid School of Arts and Crafts between 1941 and 1950 and the San Fernando School of Fine Arts from 1942 until 1958.

Achievements

• Carlos Sáenz de Tejada was a distinguished painter. The best collection of his work can be found in the Caja Vital. The City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz named a street between Abendaño and Bustinzuri after him in 1977.
  
  He won first prize at the Decorative Arts Competition in Madrid in 1947. In 1955 he received the First Medal in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts.

Works

More photos

• design

  • Cover for 'ABC'

  • Cover for 'Verticle' magazine

  • Fan painted by the artist in Paris

  • A color sketch of a card. Heraclius Fournier.

  • Cover design for "Ladies home journal"

• illustration

  • Untitled Illustration

  • Illustration for 'Carmen'

  • Platero. The lulling sleeping brother.

  • Colombina

  • Don Juan. Illustration.

  • Speaking with Platero

  • Attorneys

  • Don Juan Tenorio

  • Don Juan. Illustration.

  • Don Juan Tenorio

  • Punch Crispin and rowing

  • Don Juan. Study of illustration.

  • Illustration for "The Living Forest"

  • Platero. Well.

  • Sketch for "Ladies home journal"

  • Drawing for fashion magazine 'Elegance'

  • Don Juan Tenorio. The abduction of Dona Ines

  • Gala evening

  • Don Juan Tenorio. Seville Street

  • Death of Don Miguel de Mahara

  • Scene of 'Vested interests'. Tables I.

  • Fashion Illustration

  • Cover for 'La moda en Espana'

  • Figurine for Ravel's Bolero Antonia Merce, "La Argentina"

  • Fancy dress ball

  • A spanish church

• painting

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 8. Before saying Mass, Ignatius is overcome with tears

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 1. Ignatius recovers from his wounds at Loyola

  • Front of Villarreal de Álava

  • Sketch of decoration for the ceiling of The Royal Mint of Spain

  • The village idiot

  • At Los Olivares de Mallorca

  • Sketch for one of the murals of the Army

  • Arrantzales. Ondárroa.

  • The Alcázar of Toledo

  • Mural sketch for Agricultural Research Institute

  • The olive groves of Mallorca

  • Portrait of Benvenuti Gonzalez del Campillo

  • Market in La Cuesta de San Vicente - Vitoria

  • The Palace Escoriaza-Esquivel

  • Portrait of Carlos Saenz de Tejada Benvenuti

  • Buitrago houses

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 4. Ignatius and his friend, Francis Xavier, at the university of Paris. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul

  • Houses in Buitrago

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 9. After their solemn vows at the Basilica of St-Paul-Outside-The-Walls in Rome, the companions set off to help souls with unbounded joy

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 10. The Death of St. Ignatius 31st July 1556.

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 5. Ignatius and the first companions take vows at Montmatre 15th August 1534.

  • Mother and child

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 2. Ignatius writes the Spiritual Exercises in the cave at Manresa.

  • Drawing for fashion magazine 'Elegance'

  • Sketch of mural decoration for the Institute of Agronomic Research Madird

  • Girl from back, Luisita

  • The Chapman

  • Flight from Bilbao

  • Girl with horse

  • The Enchanted Forest. Holy Company.

  • Vitoria 1850

  • New Market Square in Vitoria

  • Portrait of Eduardo Santonja Rosales

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 7. Pope Paul III approves the Society of Jesus 27th September 1540 Regimini Militantes.

  • Sketch of decoration for the dome-Convent of Jesus and Mary College

  • Looting (Valencia)

  • Basque landscape

  • A sad girl

  • Loneliness

  • Untitled

  • Visit of Tetuan from the terrace of Khalifa

  • Rio Lozoya the passage by the Paular

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 6. The vision at La Storta (outside Rome) I will be favourable to you in Rome.

  • The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. Plate 3. The vision at the River Cardoner (Manresa).

  • Child at the sun

  • Sketch of decoration for the hall of the study of H. de la Mata

  • Nude model

  • Dance at the Casino de la Playa

  • Granada

  • The Anglo-Spanish

  • Sketches for mural. Castillo de la Mota

  • Sketch of mural decoration for the Emperador Hotel

  • The brigades of dawn

  • Girl with teddy bear

  • Girl With Doll

  • At the bar

  • The portalón. Vitoria, fifties.

  • Sketch of two rowers Ondarroa (Vizcaya)

  • Nude girl

  • Sketch for decoration of Carmen, Antonia Merce, "La Argentina"

  • Girl seen from behind, Luisita

  • Sketch of Curtain For The Representation Of Don Juan Tenorio Treatal In Theater

  • Mother and child

  • Founding act of the Municipal Savings Bank of Vitoria in 1850

  • Sketch for folk scene

  • The groves of Mallorca

Connections

Father:

Carlos Sáenz deTejada y Groizard

Mother:

María de Lezama González del Campillo

References

• Carlos Sáenz de Tejada, ilustrador de "Elegancias" (1924-1926)