Valentin De Zubiaurre (1879 – 1963) Saturraran Beach - Motrico- Basque Country "hst 22x35 Cm

Valentin de ZUBIAURRE (Madrid 1879 – Madrid 1963) “Playa de Saturraran - Mutriku” Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard signed lower left Dimensions: 22.5 x 35 cm Valentín de Zubiaurre was born in Madrid in 1879, three years before his brother Ramón. His father was a composer and master organist at the Royal Chapel. Although both deaf, they received an excellent education and overcame this difficulty. Like his brother, Valentín studied at the School of Fine Arts of the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, where he enrolled at the age of fifteen after attending classes with the painter Daniel Perea, who was also deaf. There he studied with the landscape painter Carlos de Haes and the painters Muñoz Degrain, Ferrant and Moreno Carbonero. He acquired a solid education, enriched by his visits to the Prado Museum, where he copied the old masters. After his studies, he traveled to France, the Netherlands, and Italy with his brother. In 1902, they received a scholarship from the Diputación (provincial authorities) of Biscay, allowing them to settle in Paris. There, they studied at the Académie Julian, became familiar with modern painting, and became interested in Impressionism, although they were little influenced by it due to the importance of their academic training and their predilection for early Flemish and Italian artists and, among contemporary Spaniards, for Ignacio Zuloaga and, to a lesser extent, for Darío de Regoyos. A regular participant in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, Valentín won several medals (second in 1908 and first in 1917). He also received awards from foreign institutions and won important prizes in international competitions during the first ten years of the century, including those in Munich, Buenos Aires, Brussels, San Francisco, San Diego, and the University of Panama. The period from the 1920s to the Spanish Civil War was the period of both brothers' greatest international success. Their styles were different: Ramón was more coloristic and Valentin more classical, but without academic constraints. After the war, Valentin remained in Madrid, while his brother lived in the United States until 1951. Official recognition of his artistic career in Spain increased after his membership in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1945, and culminated in the award of the Medal of Honor at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1957. He died in Madrid in January 1963. His most characteristic paintings are Basque and Castilian genre scenes, of a realism that the hieratic aspect of the figures and especially the palette imbue with a certain symbolism.