Bartolome Esteban Mirillo, a Spanish painter, born in Seville, where he was baptized Jan. 1, 1618, died there, April 3, 1682. At an early age he entered the studio of his uncle Juan de Castillo, and soon began to sketch the ragged, sunburnt children of the street, and to paint pictures of Spanish low life. The removal of his master in 1640 to Cadiz threw Murillo upon his own resources, and he painted several coarse and hurried pictures to sell in the public fairs of Seville. To procure means to enable him to study in Madrid, he executed pictures for the colonial market, which were distributed throughout the Spanish American possessions, comprising the greater part if not the whole of his paintings in churches and monasteries of the new world, and the number and value of which have been greatly exaggerated. With the money thus acquired he went in 1643 to Madrid, and was kindly received by Velasquez, who admitted him to his academy and introduced him to the royal galleries of the capital and the Escurial, where during the next two years he copied the works of Titian, Rubens, Vandyke, Ribera, and Velasquez. After his return to Seville, his first important commission was from the friars of the convent of San Francisco, for the cloisters of which he painted 11 large pictures in the frio, described as dark, with a decided outline, which was the first of the three styles usually distinguished in his works.

The cloisters were burned in 1810, and the greater part of the pictures carried off by Marshal Soult. Commissions flowed in upon him, and in 1648 he married an Andalu-sian lady of wealth and rank. Soon afterward he adopted his cdlido or second style, warm, and with improved coloring, some of the earliest examples of which are " Our Lady of the Conception," the "San Leandro". and "San Isidro," the "Nativity of the Virgin," and the " St. Anthony of Padua." From the last, in the cathedral of Seville, the figure of the saint was cut out and stolen in 1874, but recovered in New York in January, 1875. In 1660 Murillo, in conjunction with Valdes Leal and the younger Herrera, founded an academy of art in Seville, of which he was president till his death. To this period may be ascribed his four lanre semicircular pictures, executed for the church of Santa Maria la Blanca in Seville. Two of these, representing the legend of the dream of the Roman patrician which led to the building of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome under Pope Liberius, now hang in the academy of san Fernando in Madrid. They are in the va-poroso style, described as misty, vaporous, and blending and are magnificent specimens of the artist's powers.

Between 1660 and 1674 was executed, for an almshouse outside the walls of Seville, a celebrated series of pictures. Five of these, "Abraham receiving the three Angels," "The Return of the Prodigal Son," "The Healing of the Cripple," "St. Peter released from Prison by the Angel," and " St. Elizabeth of Hungary," were carried off by Soult. The first two were sold to the duke of Sutherland; the third was bought by Mr. Tomline, an English collector, for 1G0,(>00 francs; the fourth is in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg; and the fifth, with the two pictures from Santa Maria la Blanca, is in the academy of Seville. Of the original series still remaining in the almshouse the chief are "Moses striking the Rock," "The Charity of San Juan de Dios," and " The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes," works conceived with all the artist's strength in the maturity of his powers. Subsequent to 1675 he painted a series of about 20 pictures for the convent of the Capuchins in Seville, of which 17 are now in the museum of the city.

One of the best of these, " The Charity of St. Thomas of Villanueva," presents many striking studies of street nature, and was called by the artist su lienzo, "his own picture." Another celebrated picture formerly in the chapel of the monastery, representing the Virgin and child, is said to have been painted on a servilleta, whence it was called the "Virgin of the Napkin."He subsequently executed fine series of pictures for the hospital de Jos renerahles and the Aiurustinian convent of Seville, and a multitude of miscellaneous works, generally of a religious character. Preeminent among them were those devoted to the illustration of the immaculate conception of the Virgin; and from the frequency and fondness with which he represented the subject, he was called "the painter of the conceptions." A memorable example of this style of picture is the "Immaculate Conception," purchased at the sale of Marshal Soult's collection in 1852 by the French government for 635,000 francs, and now in the Louvre, in which the Virgin appears in a state of ecstatic beatitude, borne aloft in a golden ether to heaven by a multitude of cherubs, who are painted with inimitable sweetness.

A few similar works, attributed to him, are owned in the United States. His remaining works are distributed among tin- royal and private galleries of Europe. The Louvre contains a considerable number; the Pinakothek in Munich has two or three admirable specimens of his beggar boys; Dulwich gallery has six pictures, including the celebrated "Flower Girl;" and the national gallery of London has his "Holy Family" and "Infant St. John and the Lamb." The Hermitage in St. Petersburg has 18 of his pictures. His "Little Shepherd" (El pastorcico), presented by Queen Isabella to Guizot, was sold by him at auction in May, 1874, for 120,000 francs. Such, however, has been the mania of late years for his works, that his name has been applied indiscriminately to productions utterly unworthy of his pencil, and many of the pictures of peasants and beggars attributed to him are supposed to be by his followers or pupils. A short time before his death Murillo went to Cadiz to paint the " Espousals of St. Catharine " over the high altar in the Capuchin church of that city, and while engaged upon the work stumbled and fell from the scaffolding, receiving an injury which proved fatal.

He was buried in the church of Santa Cruz in Seville, before a picture of the " Descent from the Cross " by Pedro Campana, which he had greatly admired in his life. The French in 1810 levelled the church to the ground, and " cast out the ashes of Murillo to the winds." Murillo was essentially a painter of religious subjects, and excelled as a colorist. As a landscape painter his scenery is often conventional and merely accessory. He also painted a few portraits. - See Ford's " Handbook of Spain," Stirling's " Annals of the Artists of Spain," Head's " Handbook of the Spanish School," and Cunningham's " Life of Wilkie".