Eduardo Schiaffino

Eduardo Schiaffino (1858–1935) was an Argentine painter, critic, historian, and cultural promoter, and a key figure of the Generation of ’80. He founded the National Museum of Fine Arts and served as its first director from 1895 to 1910. Trained in Europe, he helped establish art criticism and formal institutions for the visual arts in Argentina. He promoted study grants, organized the country's first systematic salons, and brought international art to local audiences. As a diplomat and author of Painting and Sculpture in Argentina (1933), he played a central role in shaping national art history and the formation of the so-called Argentine School of Art.