Francisco Oller

• Francisco Oller y Cestero, born June 17, 1833 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was a painter (visual artist).
  

From an early age, he demonstrated an enormous talent in art. At eleven years old he began to study art under the tutelage of Juan Cleto Noa, an art acadamy teacher. He was such an extraordinary artist that he was offered an opportunity to continue his studies in Rome but his mother would not allow it for he was too young. At eighteen, he traveled to Madrid, Spain to study painting in the San Fernando Art Acadamy (Academia de Artes de San Fernando). There he would study under the tutelage of Don Federico de Madrazo. He also studied under the instruction of Gustave Courbet.

Oller returned to Puerto Rico in 1853, upon his father's death he moved to Paris, France where he continued painting, frequented cafés and also exhibited some of his art among other great artists of that time.

In 1872, he was named the official painter of the Royal Court of Don Amadeo I de Saboya. A year later he was designated representative to Spain in the Vienna World Exhibition.

Francisco Oller y Cestero died in San Juan on May 17, 1917.

• Francisco Oller on Wikipedia
• Puerto Rican Painters