Painter and Academic of Fine Art. She was born in Madrid on 2nd October 1814, and was the daughter of Leocardia Zorrilla, who was Francisco de Goya’s housekeeper. From the age of seven, she was instructed by the Aragonese painter in drawing.

Later, following the exile of Goya to Bordeaux in 1823, she continued her studies with the architect Tiburcio Pérez Cuervo, in whose workshop she drew in india ink. In September 1824, she moved with her mother and brother Guillermo to Bordeaux. There the three installed themselves in the home of Goya, where they lived until his death in 1828. It was here that Rosario pursued painting alongside her protector until in 1825 she enrolled in the free public school directed by Pierre Lacour, receiving academic training.

In 1833, the family returned to Madrid, where Rosario worked as a copyist in the Museo del Prado. She copied works in the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Art, and also from private collections such as that of the Duchess of San Fernando. Between 1835 and 1842, she participated in the exhibitions of the Academy, displaying, according to Ossorio “good copies and drawings that were highly praised”.

In 1841 she achieved a silver medal for her pastel work El Silencio, in the exhibition held in the Societé Philomatique in Bordeaux. In 1842, she became professionally established, having been named Professor of Drawing of Queen Isabel II and her sister María Fernanda, with a salary of 8,000 real annually. However, this income could not be fully enjoyed as she passed away on 31st July 1843, before reaching thirty years of age. From 1837, Rosario Weiss was an associate of the Artistic and Literary Lyceum of Madrid, where she made portraits in the weekly artistic sessions and also displayed in several exhibitions, including posthumously. Ossorio looks back on the exhibition of 1846, echoing the words of a reputed critic concerning the late artist three years previously: “by whose hand there was a good portrait and a copy in said exhibition”, whose talent promised, “glory and pride for her country”.

In January 2018, the Spanish National Library, in collaboration with the Museo Lázaro Galdiano and the Centre of European-Hispanic Studies, dedicated an exhibition to the Drawings of Rosario Weiss, making her the first woman artist of the nineteenth century to whom an official institution dedicated a monograph in Spain. The exhibition displayed more than one hundred works by the painter, drawings in particular, amongst which the most outstanding were the portraits of Francisco de Goya, Ramón Mesonero Romanos, Guillermo Weiss, El marqués de Benalúa, Los hermanos Velluti and her famous Una dama de Burdeos, in addition to landscapes. A set of lithographs were also displayed, including her Self Portrait, Espronceda, Lara o Zorrilla, along with her oil paintings of Francisco de Goya and The Dukes of San Fernando.  

MAE, Mariángeles Pérez-Martín, March 2021.