Search Famous Puerto Ricans

Born June 17, 1833 in Bayamón. Died May 17, 1917 in San Juan. Puerto Rico's greatest 19th-century painter. Greatly influenced by the European art world, Oller studied in Spain and Paris, although it meant abandoning his wife and children for 11 years. Following such painters as Picasso and Cezanne, Oller became the first Latin American impressionist, adapting their obsession with light and color to tropical skies. He was also a realistic painter of landscapes and still lifes in Puerto Rico, brilliant capturing the local flora. His best-known work "El Velorio" (The Wake) (1893), which was shown at the Paris Salon in 1895.