Evita Fine Arts Museum
Encyclopedia
Córdoba, Argentina
Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...
.
Overview
The museum is housed in the Ferreyra Palace, a Beaux-Arts mansion designed by French architectFrench architecture
The history of French architecture runs in parallel with its neighbouring countries in Europe, with France being home to both some of the earliest pioneers in many architectural styles, and also containing some of the finest architectural creations of the continent.-Roman:The architecture of...
Ernest Sanson
Ernest Sanson
Paul Ernest Sanson was a French architect trained in the Beaux-Arts manner.Sanson entered the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris at the age of eighteen, and followed the courses offered by Émile Gilbert...
and built between 1912 and 1916 for Dr. Martín Ferreyra, a prominent local physician and surgeon, as well the owner of limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
quarries and the then-biggest lime factory in Argentina (located at Malagueño, 15 miles to the west of Córdoba).
Ferreyra chose the spot as a result of the development of the adjacent Sarmiento Park
Sarmiento Park
Sarmiento Park is the largest public park in Córdoba, Argentina.-Overview:The development of a suburb south of the rapidly growing Córdoba of the late nineteenth century created the need for an extensive new green space for the area. The new neighborhood's chief developer, Miguel Crisol,...
, a 17 hectare (43 acre) space created along what was then Córdoba's eastern edge (New Córdoba) and inaugurated in 1911. Subsequent generations added to the palace's interiors, notably the Imperial Bedroom (Dormitorio Imperio), so named because the furniture was copied by famed cabinetmaker Krieger of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, from those used by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The mansion was expropriated by the Córdoba Governor José Manuel de la Sota
José Manuel de la Sota
José Manuel de la Sota is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician. He was the governor of Córdoba Province from 1999 until 2007.-Biography:...
in 2005, by which the Ferreya family was reportedly compensated with a fraction of the landmark's market value and subsequently entered litigation.
The controversial refurbishment resulted in the loss of much of the rear half of the mansion and of many of its interior details. The Ferreyras made a photographic resource available to demonstrate how the "Casa Grande" (as the family used to refer to the palace) was before the remodel practically destroyed the regal suites and salons; the website is the only publicly-available such source.
Following a complicated refurbishment process, the "Ferreyra Palace Fine Arts Museum" opened its doors on October 17, 2007; political considerations led to the institution's redesignation that December as the Evita Fine Arts Museum, in homage to the influential former Argentine First Lady, Evita Perón.
The museum maintains 12 exhibit halls, a sculpture garden, library, and an auditorium for 120. Its collection of over 500 works includes those by Emilio Caraffa
Emilio Caraffa
-Life and work:Emilio Caraffa was born in Catamarca, Argentina, in 1862. His family relocated to Rosario, where he attended the local National College , and learned to draw and sketch...
, Juan Carlos Castagnino
Juan Carlos Castagnino
Juan Carlos Castagnino was an Argentine painter, architect, muralist and sketch artist.Born in the city of Mar del Plata, he studied in the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, and became a disciple of Lino Enea Spilimbergo and Ramón Gómez Cornet.By the end of the 1920s, he became a member of...
, Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
, Fernando Fader
Fernando Fader
Fernando Fader was a French-born Argentine painter of the Post-impressionist school.-Life and work:Fernando Fader was born in Bordeaux, France in 1882. His father, of Prussian descent, relocated the family to Argentina in 1884, settling in the western city of Mendoza before returning to France a...
, Francisco Goya
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...
, Emilio Pettoruti
Emilio Pettoruti
Emilio Pettoruti was an Argentine painter, who caused a scandal with his avant-garde cubist exhibition in 1924 in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was a city full of artistic development...
, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Joaquín Sorolla, Lino Enea Spilimbergo
Lino Enea Spilimbergo
Lino Enea Spilimbergo was an Argentine artist and engraver, and he is considered to be one of the country's most important painters....
and Ricardo Supisiche
Ricardo Supisiche
Ricardo Argentino Supisiche was an Argentine painter and engraver.Supisiche was born in Santa Fe, the capital of Santa Fe Province, in 1912. He studied drawing at the José María Reinares Academy in his home city, and under master Sergio Sergi at Santa Fe's Municipal Lyceum...
, among others. The museum hosts ongoing temporary exhibits, as well.