Valentín Carderera y Solano was born in Huesca in the year 1796, dying in Madrid in 1880. He obtained the recognition of being nominated a painter of camera of the queen Elizabeth II. He studied in the Sertoriana University of Huesca and later he learned drawing in Saragossa and Madrid, where he was a Maella disciple. In 1822 he obtains a scholarship to study in Rome, covering Italy until 1831, a few trips that would capture in graphs books.
      From much young man he was interested by the collecting of antiquities, valuable books and artistic works. He provided with funds of his own collection the creation of the Museum of Huesca that was going to occupy the enclosure of the ancient University. Also he assembled a notable quantity of engravings of Francisco de Goya. On the pages of "The Artist" an article of him appeared in 1835 that meant the first Spanish biography of the brilliant Aragonese.
      Valentín Carderera stood out in painting in the genre of the portrait, where he allows to notice the influence of the Madrazo family, with a line finished and worried by the detail of esthetics clearly from neoclassicism, although for moments a romantic breath is glimpsed; by his interest in the portrait is his collection of drawings of illustrious personages of Spain of all the epochs: Spanish iconography (1855, extended in 1864), which constitutes his cardinal work; the most known of the portraits of Baltasar Gracián is an idealized drawing done from the mediocre pictures of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries that preserve the iconographic idea of the baroque writer. He cultivated historical and allegorical topics also; and he met to international exhibitions (Paris, 1855 or London, 1862).
     Painter and critic of Spanish art, realized study missions for Spain to know the state of conservation of the monuments, of which he planned notes of big documentary value. He is the author, between other works, of Spanish Iconography (1855-1864), of the first biography of Goya (1835 and 1838) and of Don José de Madrazo (1835).
     Although painter, archaeologist, historian of the art and collector, also made philosophy studies in the Sertoriana University of Huesca. Under the patronage of José de Palafox he studied painting in Saragossa with Buenaventura Salesa. In 1861 it was when he moved to Madrid to extend his artistic formation with Salvador Maella and Mr. José de Madrazo. Pensioner in 1822 by the duke of Villahermosa he went to Rome, remaining in Italy for space of nine years, where had origin his vocation and professional dedication towards the archaeology, the artistic collecting and the study of the literary sources and works of art.
     In 1836 he was commissioned by the Spanish government to inventory the disentailed monasteries of the provinces of Valladolid, Burgos, Palencia and Salamanca; realizing simultaneously numerous studies and drawings of monuments and works of art, published between 1855-1864 in the work "Spanish Iconography". From 1838 he was a member of the meeting of the National museum and of the Real Museum of Painting and Sculpture, as well as of the Real Academies of San Fernando and of the History. He exercised the teaching of Theory and History of the Fine Arts in the Academy of San Fernando. He published numerous critical and biographical articles in magazines like Spanish Picturesque Weekly paper, The Artist and The Fine Arts, accompanied by drawings autographs. Some of his drawings of monuments were made use by Pérez Villaamil for the edition of the Artistic and Monumental Spain. He left a notable library and a nourished works of art collection, especially stamps and engravings partly preserved in the Provincial Museum of Huesca, of which he was his principal initiator.

     As for his pictorial work, he devoted himself especially to the genre of the portrait, with numerous works of personalities of the Spanish political and aristocratic life, as well as some pictures of historical and allegorical topics. He took part in international exhibitions like that of Paris of 1855 and of London of 1862. In his portraits it is necessary to indicate the influence of the art of the Madrazo, for its pictorial finished and meticulous drawing much tied to the neoclassicism, but with a latent romantic spirit.



     His paintings, drawings, engravings, rare books and incunabula, ceramics, enamels, ivories, cloths and ancient brocades, were constituting an inexcusable visit for the artists in search of papers and a pleasure for the understood. His fundamental work, Spanish Iconography (1855 and 1864), published in Spanish and French, is one of the first repertoires of effigies of illustrious personages of the XIth to XVIIth centuries. Painter of occupational and neoclassic training, evolves towards an early romanticism. Although his production includes all the pictorial genres, he emphasizes his work like portraitist, and is nominated an honorary painter of camera of Elizabeth II. There collaborates in the formation of the most important magazines of the Spanish cultural ambience, like Artistic and Monumental Spain, The Artistic and Literary Lyceum, The Universal Museum or The Artist, where he publishes, between other articles, the first biography of Goya in Spain (1835). There writes also in important foreign magazines like Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1860 and 1863). Academician of number of the Real ones of Fine Arts of San Fernando and of the History and entrusted of the selection and laying of the works for the Museum of the Trinidad, in 1848 he is named to substitute for the director of the Real Museum of Painting and Sculpture. Commissioned by the Government to inventory the amortized monasteries, in 1850, the Real Patrimony entrusts him the project of restoration of the Real Citadels of Seville. In addition to diverse donations to institutions like the Prado Museum, the National Library or the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, the love towards his native ground stays of manifesto in the legacy for the formation of the Provincial Museum of Huesca with head office in the building of the ancient Sertoriana University . Roused by the portraits, he bequeaths to the Prado Museum two pictures, which enter on July 5, 1880.
     As writer he published studies in the principal cultural magazines of his epoch: Artistic and Monumental Spain, The Artistic and Literary Lyceum, The Universal Museum or The Artist or already named French Gazette des Beaux-Arts.
      The familiar house was located in the High Coso of Huesca, it forms a corner to the Square of the Blessed Virgin. A haughty construction unmistakable in its aspect, which was doing a chamfer at the corner of confluence of the streets; it was provided with a few wide and showy lookouts and the building, with first floor and two heights more , was finishing off with a picturesque and voluminous spherical structure that was distinguishing from its environment.

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