Ricardo Baroja Nessi

RICARDO BAROJA NESSI (Riotinto, Huelva, 1871 - Vera de Bidasoa, Navarra, 1953)
Untitled.
Pencil on paper.
Presents stamp in the lower right area.
Framed with museum glass.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 9,5 x 17 cm; 28 x 35 cm (frame).
Ricardo Baroja was one of the most singular figures of the Generation of 98. Brother of the novelist Pío Baroja, he developed in a self-taught way a personal and modern work, far from the dominant academic taste of the beginning of the 20th century. Painter, engraver and writer, he excelled especially in etching, a discipline in which he came to be considered the best Spanish master after Francisco de Goya. His engravings, between the Goyaesque and the lyrical, portray with great expressive force popular scenes and characters of intense humanity.
Since 1900 he actively participated in exhibitions in Bilbao, San Sebastian and Madrid, and in 1903 he founded, together with Pablo Picasso and Francisco de Asis Soler, the group "Arte Joven", linked to the Spanish artistic renovation. In 1928 he was appointed professor at the National School of Graphic Arts, consolidating his prestige as an engraver. After the war he resumed his exhibitions with notable success in San Sebastian, Bilbao and Madrid, becoming also one of the promoters of the Basque cultural life through the foundation of the Artistic Association of Guipuzcoa. Today his work is part of important Spanish public collections, such as the Fine Arts Museums of Bilbao and Alava or the Museum of San Telmo.