Biography of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

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Biography of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Originally from Seville, Spain, Bécquer was born on February 17,


1836, his father being a famous painter of Sevillian costumbrism
who left Adolfo orphaned at the age of five...

Biography:

Originally from Seville, Spain, Bécquer was born on February 17,


1836, his father being a famous painter of Sevillian costumbrism
who left Adolfo orphaned at the age of five; He began his first
studies at the San Antonio Abad school, and then went on to take a
nautical career at the San Telmo school.

At the age of nine, he also lost his mother and left his previous
school to be welcomed by his baptismal godmother. At the age of
seventeen he left his godmother and the good position it provided
him to travel to Madrid in search of fortune through the field of
letters that came easily to him.

As is known, it was not easy to subsist on literature and


paradoxically, Bécquer, who wanted to find fortune, faced
shortages, so he was forced to serve as a clerk in the Directorate of
National Assets, where his ability to draw was admired. by his
colleagues, but it was the reason for his dismissal when he was
caught by the Director making drawings of Shakespeare scenes. In
this way, Gustavo returned to living off his literary articles, which
were then in little demand, so he alternated this activity with the
production
of fresco paintings.

Some time later he found a position in the editorial office of “El


Contemporáneo” and it was then that he wrote most of his legends and the “Letters from my cell.”

In 1862, his brother Valeriano, famous in Seville for his pictorial production but no more fortunate than Gustavo, came to live with
Bécquer, and together they lived from day to day, one translating novels or writing articles and the other drawing and painting by
piece; It was very difficult for the brothers to overcome their misfortune and over time they achieved a modest stability together that
allowed one to paint portraits for free and the other to write an ode out of enthusiasm.

As a legacy for world literature, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer left his “Rhymes” through which he reveals the melancholic and
tormented nature of his life; In the genre of legends he wrote the famous “Maese Pérez the Organist”, “The Green Eyes”, “The Dry
Leaves” and “The Passion Rose” among several others. He wrote sketches and essays such as “The Stone Woman”, “The Night of
the Dead”, “A Drama” and “The Emerald Dressing” among a variety similar to that of his legends. He made descriptions of “The
Basilica of Santa Leocadia”, the “Solar de la Casa del Cid” and the “Burial of Garcilaso de la Vega”, among others. Finally, within
the Spanish customs or folklore he wrote “Los dos Compadres”, “Las Juegoras”, “Holy Week in Toledo”, “El café de Fornos” and
others. In September 1870 Valeriano ceased to exist, a hard blow. for Gustavo, who soon fell ill without any precise symptoms,
from pneumonia that later turned into hepatitis to turn into pericarditis that would soon end his life on September 23 of that same
year. A few months later, on December 22, 1870, Gustavo Adolfo dies.
Curiously, coinciding with a total eclipse of the sun, he died at the age of
34 in Madrid, probably from some type of winter cold.

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