San Pedro – El Greco – El Escorial (copy of a work by Doménikos Theotokópoulos found in El Escorial)

“Spanish painter Juan Albert Roses was born in Yecla in 1898 and grew up in Alicante until 1922. He was an apprentice to his father, who was a sculptor, and then studied literature and painting under the impressionist painters Lorenzo Pericat and Joaquin Sorolla. In 1922, he moved to Madrid, where he started producing copies of works by great painters at the Prado Museum.

While copying the works by Doménikos Theotokópoulos, he also began studying the painter’s technique. In 1923 he moved to Tampico, Mexico, where Augusto Figueroa gave him an art studio where he first exhibited his works.

Following his return to Spain in 1931 and until 1953, he devoted himself entirely to copying Theotokópoulos’ works, and produced 73 copies in total.

Although he produced portraits of Latin American leaders and heads of government, landscapes and still lifes, Juan Albert Roses is considered the most important copyist of Theotokópoulos’ works.

Roses’ copies have been exhibited in various countries in South America and Europe, receiving glowing comments. In 1963, his works were exhibited for the first time in Greece, in a large exhibition organized at the Zappeion Hall in Athens. He died in Madrid on August 24, 1976 at the age of 80”.

Source: Museo de Replicas de El Greco