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Antonio Ortiz Echagüe

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Self-portrait (1912)

Antonio Ortiz Echagüe (15 October 1883, Guadalajara, Spain – 8 January 1942, Buenos Aires) was a Spanish Costumbrista painter, who spent much of his career in other countries. He was the older brother of the famous photographer, engineer and entrepreneur, José Ortiz Echagüe.

Biography

His father was a military engineer. But, rather than pursue a technical career like his brother José, he showed an early aptitude for art. His uncle, Francisco, was appointed a military attaché in Paris, and proposed that Antonio, then fourteen, accompany him there to study. This was approved. There, he attended the Académie Julian and the Académie des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Léon Bonnat. Later, he went to Rome, where he shared a studio with Federico de Madrazo y Ochoa and, in 1904, obtained a scholarship to study at the Academia de España de Roma [es].[1] Altogether, he stayed in Rome for four years; spending part of his last year there in Sardinia, painting women in their native costumes.

Procession in Sardinia

While in Rome, he met a Dutch family who commissioned a portrait of their daughter, Elisabeth Smidt (who would later become his wife). This prompted him to move to the Netherlands and settle in Hilversum, where he painted portraits and genre scenes. In 1910, he presented his first entry at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid and received a Second Class prize for "Mrs. Jansen and Her Friends". This success enabled him to visit the United States and Argentina and display his works at several galleries there. At the beginning of World War I, he returned to Spain.[1]

He married Elisabeth in 1919 and they spent some time in Granada, where he focused on panoramic landscapes and, once again, women in native costumes. During the 1920s, they alternated between Hilversum and Paris, where he maintained a studio. He held a solo exhibition at the Georges Petit Gallery, and the Salon presented him with a gold medal in 1923 for "Jacob Van Amstel at My House", which would also receive a First Class prize at the National Exhibition in 1924. Later, he was named a Knight in the Order of Alfonso XII, and was commissioned to paint Alfonso XIII.[1]

In 1926, he moved to Madrid and settled in Fuente del Berro; specializing in portraits of the aristocracy. He also traveled with his brother, José, seeking out landscapes and rural types as subjects for his paintings. Later, he was named President of the Asociación de Pintores y Escultores, and the Biblioteca Nacional de España organized his first major solo exhibition.

At the age of forty-five, he made a trip to Morocco and settled in Fez for two years; painting Berber women, the vendors at the souk, and workers from Senegal. His works were exhibited in Fez and Rabat and earned him an Order of Ouissan Alaouite Medal from the Moroccan sultan, Mohammed V. Upon returning home, he exhibited his Moroccan works in Madrid and Paris.[1]

Jacob Van Amstel at My House

At the beginning of the 1930s, he moved to Argentina, where he purchased a small farm outside Santa Rosa in La Pampa. When the Spanish Civil War began, he decided to stay in Argentina; a decision that was reinforced by the start of World War II. He continued to exhibit frequently in Buenos Aires and the United States; notably at the Carnegie Institute in 1940. That same year, he was named a corresponding member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Two years later, he died of lung cancer, aged fifty-eight.[1]

In 1998, the "Museo Ortiz Echagüe" was inaugurated in Santa Rosa. Two years later, another museum dedicated to his work was opened in Atzara, Sardinia.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Biography @ Euskonews

Further reading

  • Fornells Angelats, Montserrat, Antonio Ortíz Echagüe (1883-1942). Un pintor cosmopolita, Ed. Fundación Kutxa. San Sebastián 2008 ISBN 978-84-7173-526-3
  • Frongia. Maria Luisa, Due pittori spagnoli in Sardegna. Eduardo Chicharro Agüera (1901) e Antonio Ortiz Echagüe (1906-1909), (exhibition catalog) Ed. Ilisso. Nuoro, Sardinia 1995 ISBN 978-88-85098-33-6
  • Smidt, Elisabeth, Antonio Ortiz Echagüe. Testimonio de su esposa. Ed. Biblioteca Pampeana. La Pampa 1968.
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