Eugenio Lucas Villamil was known during his lifetime as “Lucas son” as he was an offspring of another painter Eugenio Lucas Velázquez and Francisca Villamil – a daughter, in her turn, of Genaro Pérez Villamil, who lived in a happy union after the separation of Lucas-father from his first wife. Lucas Villamil, an heir of the speed and easiness in the usage of the brush, developped a considerable production, although it is evident that his work was not equal to the quality of his father’s work. The touches, short and with much picturesque material, showed the deep admiration for the maestros of the Spanish painting: Velázquez, Carreño, Murillo, and above all Goya, to whom some paintings were ascribed although in reality they belonged to Lucas Villamil. It was not drawing nor academicism, but light and free painting, with many touches of rich chromatic variety that concentrated, above all, on the day-to-day scenes which depicted workers and toreadors and images of the Inquisition, that were the most evident characteristics of Lucas Villamil’s painting.
He married Eugenia Esteban, and had a daughter from her by the name of Francisca Teresa, who became also a painter; and visited bohemian circles of Madrid at the end of the century, which resulted in his discovery by the maecenas José Lázaro Galdiano who charged him with the decoration of the ceilings of the palace de Parque Florido in the Serrano Street in Madrid and appointed him “royal painter”. He worked later as a restorer and copyist in the workshop of the prestigious dealer in antiquarian goods García Palencia. Among the most important distinctions that he got during his lifetime, the Caballero of the Order of Carlos III has to be emphasized.
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