Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau

Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto was born in Barcelona. His family had historical links to the Carlism movement, and his great-uncle, Melchor Ferrer Dalmau, was a Carlist journalist and historian.^[7] He studied at St. Ignatius College in Sarriá.^[8] At the end of the 1980s he worked as a textile designer, however he also had a passion for oil painting.^[9] He also had an interest in military and history, which led him to paint these subjects from a young age. He also wrote a book entitled Batallón Román, although his first works were landscapes and seascapes.^[10]

Later, inspired by the work of Antonio López García, he focused on urban environments, painting areas of his native Barcelona.^[11] He exhibited in art galleries, receiving positive reviews. This work was later collected in a monograph of the author and in several general books of contemporary art.^[12][13][14] At the end of the 1990s he decided to specialize in the historical-military theme, producing canvases where the landscape is mixed with military elements such as soldiers and cavalry.^[15]

Ferrer-Dalmau has been based in Madrid since 2010, and has collaborated with different publishers, associations^[16] and institutions^[17][18] in the recreation of the military history of Spain.^[19] Different monographic books on his painting have been published. In 2022 he founded his own magazine named the FFD Magazine,^[20] in which he approaches the history of Spain and its people from an artistic and social perspective. His work is managed by the company Historical Outline,^[21] and his paintings illustrate numerous books^[22] and magazines, especially of history.

Ferrer-Dalmau has spent time in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Mali, Lebanon, Somalia and Djibouti, making sketches, taking notes and painting. He lived with Spanish ISAF troops in 2012, and with the Georgian Armed Forces in the province of Helmand in 2014.^[23] He lived alongside the ASPFOR XXXI contingent, at the base of the Parachute Brigade, at Qala i Naw and at the Ricketts Combat Outpost (COP) in Moqur. This was the first time that a Spanish painter travelled abroad alongside the Ministry of Defense of Spain. He is a member of The International Society of War Artists. He made his work La Patrulla (The Patrol)^[24] as homage to the Spanish soldiers.^[25][26] In May 2016 he painted the Spanish troops in the mission of Lebanon,^[27] and in April 2018 he painted the Spanish Army in the European Union Training Mission in Mali (EUTM-Mali).^[28] In September 2018 he travelled to Aleppo with the Army of the Russian Federation^[29], and in November 2019 he painted the Spanish troops in Iraq.^[30]

In addition to private collections, Ferrer-Dalmau's work can be seen at the Museum of the Royal Guard (Royal Palace of El Pardo, Madrid), the Army Museum, the Museum of the General Military Academy (Zaragoza),^[31] the Naval Museum of Madrid, the Museum of Intendance (Avila), the Naval Military Academy of Marín (Pontevedra), the Museum of Modern Art of the Republic of Georgia, and the Royal Palace of Valladolid.

He has held individual exhibitions at private galleries in Barcelona, Madrid, London, Paris and New York^[32] as well as the following institutional centers: