Rafael de Penagos

Penagos studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando), where he studied under Emilio Sala and Antonio Muñoz Degrain, two major illustrators of the magazine Blanco y Negro. From the beginning of his time at the academy, Penagos had focused on both drawing and painting, but he soon demonstrated enormous skill in the art of drawing. He immersed himself in the cultural life of Madrid, and participated assiduously in the tertulias of Valle-Inclán at the Nuevo Café de Levante.

In 1913, he received a scholarship to study in Paris and London. On his return to Spain, he began to produce a large number of posters and advertisements for various firms. At the same time, he worked as an illustrator for the main magazines of the time: Nuevo Mundo, La Esfera, Estampa, Ahora,^[1] and Blanco y Negro, and for periodicals such as El Cuento Semanal, La Novela Corta and Prometeo.

In 1925, he received the most prestigious prize an artist could receive for his time: the gold medal at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts.

He illustrated the heroines of the novels of Emilio Salgari, such as Yolanda, Daughter of the Black Corsair and Honorata de Wan Guld.^[1]

In 1926, he drew the poster for the film by Florián Rey called Agustina de Aragón.^[2] During the Spanish Civil War, Penagos lived in Valencia, serving as chair of the department of Illustration at the Instituto Obrero de Valencia. He was one of the major poster designers of the Republican side, but most of the magazines he had worked for had by this time already disappeared.

In 1948 he went into exile to Chile and Argentina. In 1953 he returned to Spain, and died a year later in Madrid, where he had served as the chair of the department of Illustration at the Instituto de Bachillerato Cervantes.