miseria (1886); El violinista enfermo (1886); La taberna (1877); El plazo vencido (1887); La primera y última comunión (1888) and El bautizo (1889). With El Bautizo, a notable change in his work is observed. With a more acute perception of chromatic atmosphere, the painting displayed clear Dutch influences, a style which was also reflected in a later painting he produced in 1889 Dante y Beatriz a orillas del Leteo. Towards the end of 1889, Rojas moved away from the painting of dramatic effects which he had typically displayed at Paris Hall, and began to display talent for scenes and portraits, using colours and paying attention to details with impressionism. However, the subsidies for his scholarship would soon run out, and he became plagued with tuberculosis. He was forced to return to Venezuela in 1890, bringing with himself his last paintings, a portrait of President Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl and The Purgatorio, a depiction of purgatory (both 1890). Soon after his return to Caracas, he died on November 8 of 1890, around 5 weeks before his 33rd birthday. Personality Journalist Ermelindo Rivodó who visited Rojas in Paris in 1885, described the painter as "Somewhat pale, with small moustache and black hair, that emphasize his smooth set of melancholic eyes". Rojas was known for his reserved but highly passionate nature, rarely socialising with others around him and preferring to study art in his own medium. Peers and artistic commentators have consistently referred to him as "melancholic". Jose Antonio Hedderich, in an interesting article published in the National Magazine of Culture, after studying the life of Rojas described him; "He was of a shy character, that one was aware of the distance that existed between him and those who surrounded to him. He had few friends". However, Hedderich also continues to identify that Rojas was of a highly emotional nature. Once remarking that, "He had almost fatalistic temperament and was emphatically sad". According to Hedderich, Rojas was embittered by excessive guilty feelings about life and was acutely aware of his conscience. These feelings were often reflected in some of his works such as his purgatory painting, painted shortly before his death in the knowledge he was going to die from tuberculosis. Gallery of paintings See also Arthur Rimbaud References 1857 births 1890 deaths Venezuelan Roman Catholics People from Cúa Académie Julian alumni 19th-century Venezuelan painters 19th-century male artists Burials at the National Pantheon