Pedro J. Martínez Plaza holds a PhD in Art History from the Complutense University in Madrid. He worked for the Documentation Department of the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas and since 2010 he has been with the Department of 19th-century Painting at the Museo del Prado where, as a member of the curatorial staff, he has taken part in various projects such as coordinating the general catalogue of the collection (2015). His lines of research are centred on collecting and the art market, as well as studying a few nineteenth-century painters (Antonio María Esquivel, Emilio Sala, Cecilio Pla) and publishing collections of letters.