Onofre Jarpa
1849–1940 · Chilean landscape painter of the nineteenth century
Onofre Jarpa Labra (Alhué, 1849 – Santiago, 1940) was a Chilean landscape painter who also wrote essays on art for various Chilean publications. He is considered one of the few Romantic painters in Chile, and his work sits between academic training and the first Impressionist currents in the country. He taught Alberto Valenzuela Llanos, one of the four great masters of Chilean painting.
He trained in Santiago, first with Salustio Carmona and then at the Academy of Fine Arts, where Ernesto Kirchbach was his second teacher. In 1881 he won a scholarship from the Chilean government that took him to Europe, where he studied in Spain, Italy and Paris. His most notable period was spent in Venice, where his painting moved toward naturalism and plein-air practice. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land he returned to Chile, where the work of Antonio Smith taught him to bring Romantic feeling into his canvases.
His style combines precise technical detail with emotional intensity. Laguna de Aculeo is one of his best-known Romantic works, and Palmas de Ocoa brings together meticulously rendered palms with an Impressionist intent. In his later years, without abandoning detail, he adopted looser colour. His legacy rests on the pupils he trained and on his contribution to the way the Chilean landscape was painted.