Martin Rico y Ortega was born in Madrid on 12th November 1833. He studied initially with his brother Bernardo Rico (1825-94), a wood engraver, and subsequently at the school of Fine Arts in San Fernando, Madrid. Rico was awarded a travel scholarship in order to study in Paris, where he remained for some years, travelling Europe, before returning to Spain. Rico was at this point in his career, a painter of landscapes and town scenes, painting in Toledo, and in Granada at the Alhambra Palace. In 1872 Rico embarked for Italy when he became entranced by Venice, its Palazzos, canals and its unique quality of light. It was for his Venetian subjects that Rico rapidly became renowned, views of the churches, Palazzos, views of the canals and of the Doge’s Palace. He exhibited in Paris at the salon in 1878, being awarded a medal at the Exposition Universelle and the same year being created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 1889 Rico was awarded a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle of that year. Rico also painted in the south of Italy, in Rome and Sorrento, but it was, and is in his Venetian works that his reputation rests. Rico’s works were widely collected throughout Europe and in the United States. As early as 1889, Rico’s painting appeared on the art market in New York, and in a testament to his popularity in the United States three of his paintings representative of his oeuvre, “A Spanish Garden”, “On the Seine, Paris” and “A Canal in Venice” are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His works can be found in museums in: Madrid, Guadarrama Museum; Seville; Reims; Venice; Minneapolis and New York, Metropolitan Museum.