Ignacio Zuloaga

IGNACIO ZULOAGA Y ZABALETA (Éibar, Guipúzcoa, 1870 – Madrid, 1945).
“The Devout One.”
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Bears a Barrachina i Ramoneda label on the back.
Measurements: 95 x 56.5 cm; 118 x 80 cm (frame).

Ignacio Zuloaga excelled particularly in individual portraits, focusing on revealing character and probing the soul. In this depiction of a devout figure, with his head bowed before the cross, the painter’s determination to forgo subtleties and superfluous embellishments in order to focus on the contrite and withdrawn expression is clearly evident. He achieves this with energetic brushstrokes of great expressive power. The stern features, the mustache, the thick eyebrows, the dark complexion… all come together to form a portrait that is both elusive and truthful. A depiction of the Recumbent Christ with the Virgin Mary places us inside a church.

The son of the renowned damascene artist Plácido Zuloaga and nephew of Daniel Zuloaga, one of the most prominent Spanish ceramicists of his time, Ignacio Zuloaga worked as a child in his father’s workshop, where he had his first encounters with drawing and engraving. He later began studying engineering but abandoned those studies to devote himself to painting. He received his artistic training at the Prado Museum, copying works by Ribera, Goya, Velázquez, and El Greco—of whom he would become one of the earliest promoters. As early as 1887, he presented a painting at the National Exhibition in Madrid, titled “A Priest Praying in an Old Room.” After a first trip to Rome in 1889, during which he immersed himself in the works of the Renaissance masters, Zuloaga went to Paris, where he met French artists such as M. Dethomas and Rodin, with whom he would form a close friendship. He also met Miguel Utrillo and Santiago Rusiñol, and would later travel to Italy again with the latter. In Paris, he experimented with Pointillism and Impressionism and participated in several group exhibitions at the Le Bar de Boutteville gallery, a gathering place for the Symbolists. However, his search for his own roots led him to Andalusia, where he spent periods of time between 1894 and 1897. In 1897, in Segovia, he painted “My Uncle and My Cousins,” a work he presented at the Paris Salon and which was acquired by the French government. In 1898, he married and settled in Madrid, though he continued to make frequent trips to the French capital. The following year, he presented his “Family Portrait” at the Paris Salon, which was also acquired by the French government. Beginning in 1903, he took part in international exhibitions, and his fame continued to grow. Between 1906 and 1913, he worked in Segovia, drawn to the austerity of the Castilian landscape and the quiet, humble dignity of its inhabitants, influenced by the ideology of the Generation of ’98. In 1908, he was invited to hold an exhibition in New York. When World War I broke out, he returned to the Basque Country and lived in a 12th-century monastery in Zumaya (Guipúzcoa)—later converted into a museum—where he housed his rich art collection, which included paintings by El Greco and Goya. Such was his admiration for the Aragonese master that he even bought his birthplace in Fuendetodos. Likewise, in 1926 he acquired Pedraza Castle (Segovia), which has also been converted into a museum. Ignacio Zuloaga is today considered, alongside Gutiérrez Solana, the continuator of the tradition of Spanish painting throughout the 20th century. His work is currently represented in leading museums such as the Prado (works assigned to the Reina Sofía National Art Center), as well as in others around the world, including the Musée d’Orsay, the Rodin Museum, and the National Museum of Versailles in Paris, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan in New York, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, among others.