Joaquín Cuadras

{{Short description|Cuban painter (1843–1877)}}

{{More citations needed|date=October 2024}}

Joaquín Cuadras (1843–1877) was a Cuban painter. He attended the art school of Antonio Ciseri in Florence.Sala's Journal 15 April 1893. pp. 354–355 In 1861, Cuadras met fellow artist Walter Goodman whilst copying Old Master paintings at the Uffizi Palace in Florence, and the two became friends. They travelled to Barcelona in 1862 and arrived in London a year later.

In 1864, he sat for Walter Goodman's mother, the portrait painter Julia Goodman.Jewish Chronicle March 18th 1864. Page 3 Later that year, he travelled to Cuba with Walter Goodman.Pearl of The Antilles or An Artist in Cuba, London: H.S.King & Co. 1873

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After returning from Cuba in 1870, Cuadras moved to Selkirk, Scotland for three years, where he found work decorating mansions for the Scottish elite. One of his most important commissions was a series of eight-panel pictures illustrating Sir Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel. While in Scotland, Cuadras fathered a daughter with Elizabeth Christison in 1872. He named her Maria Josefita Cuadras, and she died in 1960 in Edinburgh.

Many of his best works were exhibited at galleries in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Cuadras was represented at the Royal Academy in 1872 by his painting Mulatto Girl's Toilette, a Scene in CubaSala's Journal April 15th 1893 Page 354-355 (sold at Sotheby's, New York in 2010[http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159635219 Sotheby's] {{dead link|date=November 2023}}) and the following year he contributed two engravings The Cuban Lovers and The Mulatto Girl to The Graphic magazine.Western Morning News April 7th 1873 In 1874, he exhibited Return the Christening, a painting of a scene in Venice with a christening party landing from a gondola, at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in London.The Mail April 29th 1876The Evening Echo 24th 1876 This painting is currently in the collection of The General Hospital, Jersey.

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Between 1868 and 1869 Cuadras was director of Academia de Dibujo de Santiago de Cuba. In 1876 he won a silver medal in an exhibition at Liceo Artístico y Literario de La Habana. He won a bronze medal in 1877 in the los juegos florales of the Liceo de Matanzas.Cronologia de Santiago de Cuba. Oscar Ruiz Miyares 1998 Four of his notable Cuban works were Como de Médicis, Río Baconao, Orfila Coronado Por Una Diosa (1874), and Lección de Anatomía - the whereabouts of which are unknown today. There are examples of Cuadras' work in the Museo Bacardi in Santiago de Cuba and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana.

Joaquín Cuadras died in Rome on 27 January 1877.