Collection

Painter and teacher. It is believed that Díaz Mackenna began to study with his father, Spanish painter Juan Díaz Carreño. He taught at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid before moving to Puerto Rico. Once on the island, in 1913, he established a n academy of painting and drawing in the YMCA building in Santurce. He taught many students in the 1910’s and 1920’s, and of them, Juan Rosado, Juan A. Colorado, Enrique T. Blanco, and Nicolás Pinilla became especially prominent. During his 22 years on the island his work consisted principally of landscapes and portraits in a realist style often mediated by impasto in order to achieve texture and relief. His numerous portraits and landscapes employ a full brush wielded rather spontaneously, a trait also recognizable in the work of his students.