here is a formula for being an extraordinary person: “X=C+A”. That is to say, knowledge plus attitude. Each morning I wrote on the blackboard of a classroom of the College of Nervión de Madrid Carmen Sánchez García, a teacher who asked his students respect in class, in addition to knowing the lesson daily. He left behind a legacy and indelible in its students: passion for art, interest in other cultures, openness of mind… he Was an agnostic, progressive, and of Felipe González. He died in July of 2016, the 86-year-old, and in his testament, appears only an heir: the Prado Museum.
Its only quirks were the Moët Chandon, flowers, and travel through all the museums of the world. His great passion, his students. Otherwise, what’s left of a living sovereign, he was left in the Meadow: a home in Toledo and 800,000 euros; with a condition, all had to be invested in the acquisition and restoration of paintings “specifically”. Among the leaders, aristocrats and businessmen who have donated their collections to the museum, it is the master anonymous. In the nearly two centuries of life at the museum, no one before she had bequeathed to the art gallery is an asset, as well.
To reconstruct the biography anonymous Carmen from its epicentre vital: the college of Nervión, in the privileged colony of madrid of the Viso. There appears another pivotal person in his story, Ramon Velasco, his executor and partner. With he rode 45 years ago the school, in two chalets. For nine years they had rented the buildings that they ended up buying through a mortgage. Ramon was a forestry engineer and had resigned his seat in the State, after finding its place in the world. It would be a teacher of technical subjects. Today, his son Leonardo, student of Carmen, is the director of the center concluded. Both recall in the boardroom who was the woman that the Prado Museum dedicated in January 2020, a temporary exhibition, with all the shopping that the gallery has made thanks to your donation. From the museum prefer not to publicize the list of works acquired, but among them is a Mariano Fortuny and an exquisite portrait painted by the flemish renaissance Adriaen Thomasz Key (that they have paid 50,000 euros).
Portrait of a gentleman, of the flamenco artist Adriaen Thomasz Key, acquired by the Prado with the money donated by Carmen Sanchez.
“did Not rest never”, says Ramon, who he met Carmen when her parents proposed to found a college. The father was a doctor, a specialist in caesarean sections, left-wing and intellectual. Your great point of reference. Carmen was born seven years before the outbreak of the Civil War and studied at the Lycée français, Vevobahis graduated with a degree in History and was formed also in English. In a military dictatorship, a time not conducive for women to study. “He was a person who wanted to know all about. He didn’t stop to read about the new methods of teaching, and travelled half the world to learn new techniques,” says Ramon. To teach children to be independent and she was the regarding perfect. He was giving classes until the age of seventy and, according to his partner of craft, just wanted to read, to travel and to stay single to continue enjoying his life alone. To marry him seemed to be “wasting time”.
In the photos that show appears surrounded by children, or attentive to them. It is austere. Nor did he believe in god, but I knew all the religions. And was not a millionaire; the money is tested is the fruit of the savings of a lifetime. Of course, in his office of director of the centre had a large picture of Las meninas.
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One donor bequeathed to the Prado 800,000 euros to buy and restore works
“Dear students, I want to mandaros a hug and a souvenir from the hospital. I’m fine, do not worry. To see if I see you soon. Hugs and kisses to all. Thank you.” It is his voice, delicate, a few weeks before his death, in a voice note saved some of his students. Peter went to see her at the hospital and sent the audio through Whatsapp to the group with whom he maintained contact. One of them, Fatima recalls with fondness how did life with them. “I’ve been in your home, with a group of students, with 14 years, to hear music,” he says on the phone conversation.
he Stopped writing his funeral, which coincided with the day of the virgin of Carmen. These two parts should sound, and they would be his students who had to take leave of her with a few words to his memory. A ceremony is secular, in the cemetery of the Almudena. Fátima and José Ramón spoke that day to remember the figure of a woman sovereign and with their own criteria at a time in which in Spain that persecuted them. A woman brave and protective of its freedom. “I have learned to respect the different mindset. That is your legacy,” says Gonzalo, known as Koko. Saw the light of democracy when she was around 50 years old and had no good memories of the Civil War. Came to that chapter and in accordance with the book, he preferred to stay on the sidelines. It was not so with the chapters of the history of art, which transcended the materials and spoke to them of their experiences and travels.
Her pupils remember her as a woman and sovereign with their own criteria at a time in which in Spain that sought to
At the funeral of José Ramón made mention of their weekend excursions with the association of Friends of castles, with which he toured Spain by visiting its historical heritage and the Monday class had all the art that I had seen on Saturday and Sunday. But nothing on par with Toledo. To his students he asked them to look at the city as a crossroads of civilizations. “As the essence of Spain,” recalls Fatima. It felt good there, the dimensions of this city with a scale of people, by the art. Ramón recalls the visits which he made them, how it was going to convents and churches, monasteries and museums.
