Genaro Pérez Villaamil was a Spanish Romantic landscape painter. He joined the army of the Liberal government in 1823 and was wounded in Andalusia, after which he was taken as a prisoner of war to Cadiz. He attended classes at the Academy of Fine Arts during his imprisonment and achieved fame after being called to Puerto Rico to decorate the Tapia Theatre.

He returned to Spain in 1833 and met the Scottish painter David Roberts, who passed on to him the British Romantic landscape conception. Pérez Villaamil settled in Madrid in 1834 and achieved a career of growing success. He was appointed academician of merit of San Fernando in 1835 and honorary chamber painter five years later. He remained outside Spain between 1840 and 1844,...