José Arpa Perea

JOSÉ ARPA PEREA (Car¬mo¬na, 1858 - Seville, 1952).
"Landscape".
Oil on canvas.
Signed and located in Texas in the lower left area.
Measurements: 27 x 41 cm.
In this work of arid landscape, the artist deploys a palette rich in tonalities and color variations, which brings a great richness to the few elements that make up this idyllic landscape. Through touches with the brush he achieves an almost microscopic image of the small vegetation that grows in the scene. This solitary image has the presence of a river whose blue finish stands out over the warmth of the ochers. This work located in Texas speaks of a key facet in the artist's life, who had to leave Mexico due to the revolution, settling in the Texan city of San Antonio, where he created an art school.
José Arpa Perea was a Spanish painter specialized in landscapes who developed much of his work in North America. He moved from Carmona to Seville when he was ten years old, where he combined his work as a brush painter with night classes at the School of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel de Hungría in Seville from 1876, where he met Eduardo Cano. Between 1883 and 1886 he was living, with great needs due to the meager scholarship granted by the Diputación de Sevilla, in the city of Rome, painting historical canvases. On his return to Seville, he set up his own studio and began to be recognized, obtaining commissions such as the decoration of the Mercantile Circle and the Military Casino of the city. He deepened his orientalist facet thanks to a trip to Morocco in 1895. He lived in Mexico between 1896 and 1910, leaving later to San Antonio (Texas, United States) because of the Mexican Revolution, setting up a painting academy in this city and receiving commissions, enjoying an economic situation that allowed him to make frequent trips to Spain, with long stays in Seville and visits to the Cantabrian coast. He stayed in this American city for more than 30 years. Throughout his life he was in frequent contact with the landscape painters of the well-known Alcalá de Guadaira School, and his work could be seen in numerous cities in all the countries where he lived (Seville...), and is preserved in important private collections around the world and in prominent institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville, the Cajasol Museum, the Museum of Huelva, the San Antonio Museum of Art (United States), the University Museum Casa de los Muñecos (Puebla, Mexico), etc.