Old Master Paintings & Spanish Colonial Art
Lot 391:
Oil on board, framed, framed measurements: 44 X 76, table measurements: 62 X 94 cm. Born to an Andalusian father and a Basque mother, he was an artist with a precocious vocation. At the age of fourteen (1897) Antonio moved to Paris, attending the Julien Academy and the French Academy of Fine Arts, where he worked in the workshop of the painter Léon Bonnat. During the summer vacations in Spain he made his first important work, La misa de Narvaja (1900), which he painted in the church of the Alava town of Narvaja, where his mother was from. He later went to Rome sharing a studio with Coco Madrazo and in 1904 he obtained a pension position at the Spanish Academy in Rome. He lived in the Eternal City for four years, reinforcing his inclination towards themes with popular characters and portraits, always life-size. The last year of pensioner he traveled to the island of Sardinia, where he was fascinated by the curious typical costumes of the different peoples of the island, painting numerous canvases with Sardinian women who had enormous success in Rome and Paris, obtaining with his great work ” Festival of the brotherhood of Atzara” the Silver Medal of the Paris Salon of 1921. His presence on the island and his style gave rise to the emergence of a school of local painters called “Scuola di Atzara”, a town that today houses a museum dedicated to the artist: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Antonio Ortiz Echagüe. Although his favorite subjects were the popular types of the different countries he visited, dressed in his regional costumes, portraits – almost always female – were his main means of livelihood. Reference bibliography: ” Fornells Angelats, Montserrat. “Antonio Ortíz Echagüe (1883-1942). A cosmopolitan painter”. Ed. Kutxa Foundation. San Sebastian 2008. Frongia. Maria Luisa. “Due pittori spagnoli in Sardegna. Eduardo Chicharro Agüera (1901) and Antonio Ortiz Echagüe (1906-1909)”. Ed. Ilisso. Nuoro, Sardinia 1995. Gracia Diez, Jose Antonio. “Painting in Álava”. Ed. Vital Box. Victory 1990″.
Share this lot:
